Mexican Canyon Trestle

Pictures taken October 9, 2009

The Osmose workers left on September 30, with restoration of the first 11 bents completed. I had to be back in Dallas so I missed the work done between September 16 and September 30. The key task for that period were to replace the rotted mid-sill in Bent #11, to put cross bracing (both tower braces and kickers) in place, and to clean the site.

Much of Bent #11 was still in good shape, including the mud sill, so rather than disassemble Bent #11, the workers jacked up the trestle above the first mid-sill (one inch!) and inserted a new mid-sill. In order to jack up the trestle, the workers built two “mini-tiers” to hold the jacks, bolted these tiers and two cross braces for the tier above into place, jacked up the trestle, put the new mid sill in place, lowered the trestle, and removed the jacks, cross braces, and “mini tiers”.

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The workers have left, and the new stringers are in place. A serious barrier is in place to keep people from going out onto the trestle.
	The stringers are beautifully aligned.
The new cross bracing is in place. In the upper tier, there is a tower brace between Bent # 5 and Bent #6 (cross like an “x”), none between Bent #6 and Bent #7, a kicker between Bent #7 and Bent #8 (inside the trestle, sloping up to the right), a kicker between Bent #8 and Bent #9 (sloping down to the right), none between Bent #9 and Bent #10, and none between Bent #10 and Bent #11. Sort of a sampler of cross bracing.
	In the center of the photo is the new mid sill for Bent #11.