STLEnginerd wrote: ↑Aug 10, 2022
Hard to imagine this project getting going as long as the spaghetti of railroads run through there. TO me these are a lot more of an impediment than I 64 which imposing but don't actually block much access to the Arch grounds.
I could imagine a couple new flyovers that connect the Macarthur Bridge track to the N/S tracks to retire and potentially repurpose for pedestrians the other flyovers north of Cedar St. That would help a lot but with the grade changes and minimum turn radiuses i am NOT entirely sure its actually feasible.
Then there is the question of the MacArthur Bridge itself. How long before it is retired, and if retired does ANY of the current rail infrustructure make any sense at all. Including the flyovers, and switching yard on Chouteau's pond.
Yeah, the flyovers and yards are useful and sensible. The 23rd Street Yard, the one in Mill Creek Valley where Chouteau's Pond used to be, is probably the most dispensable, since it mostly serves local industry between here and Jefferson City. Some of that could maybe be handled out of Lesperance, or even Dupo, but Lesperance is pretty tight, and UP has to pay a toll for every car they drag across the bridge, so it's less than ideal to work the line from the other side of the river. As to the tangle of flyovers, each of them serves a pretty unique and important purpose. The west lead to the MacArthur is pretty obvious, since it's the best connection for both the UP and the BNSF to points south and west. The south approach to the MacArthur doesn't look as important, but it serves as a way for local switching lines to bypass most of the other traffic carrying cars from river industries to the major classification yards and terminal operations on the east side. On the middle level, the TRRA High Line, which ironically uses the tunnels under the Arch, is also important, since it's the link to the Merchant's Bridge and all the northside lines and yards. That line provides the north leg of what's called the Poplar Street Wye. The south leg is the concrete trestle linking UP's two downtown yards with one another. The east leg allows Lesperance to access the High Line. The east side is, if anything, even more interesting, since each of those long trestles leading to the MacArthur feeds into one of the areas two major classification yards: TRRA Madison and A&S Gateway, each of which is an important interchange point between railroads. The railroads don't trade cars between one another often or in too many places, but that tangle of tracks is one of the small handful of places where they really really do. Daily and in quantity. Chicago is another. Probably Memphis. Maybe Cincinnati. New Orleans.
Short version: that tangle is a vital link in our national transportation network. More vital even than the Poplar Street and Stan Span combined, I'd guess. It's not going anywhere. In fact all of it is slowly being replaced and rehabilitated. Largely at the railroads' own expense. It's been an ongoing project at least since the 90s. (With the removal of the UD bridge, the simplification of the Gratiot interlocking, and the replacement of the High Line's trestles.)
Anyway, don't mind me. I'll just be rubbing down my high horse over there by the barn.
