Mission Railway Bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mission Railway Bridge is a Canadian railway bridge spanning the Fraser River at Mission, British Columbia.
It was constructed in 1909 by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The Mission Railway Bridge is supported by 13 concrete piers and is approximately 533 metres in length.
[edit] Swing span
The Mission Railway Bridge has a swing span which has a vertical clearance of 4.9 metres above the water when closed. The swing span is fitted atop a circular concrete pier, the 10th from the north bank of the river. The 10th pier is protected from shipping traffic by two 46 metre wood piers extending upstream and downstream respectively perpendicular to the bridge which are tapered at both ends. The navigation channel past the bridge is 30 metres in width. At night a fixed white light is displayed on piers 9 and 11 as well as at the up-river and down-river ends of the protection pier.
The majority of marine traffic consists of log tows and gravel barges, which are permitted to use the navigation channel benath the fixed span between piers 5 and 6. The swing span is used for wood chip barges and other vessels which cannot navigate beneath the span between piers 5 and 6.
CPR maintains a bridge tender 24 hours per day at an office on the north bank of the bridge. Vessels requesting passage through the swing span contact the bridge tender on marine VHF radio, whereby the tender walks the bridge to a control booth situated on the swing span.
|
||||||||
