New Bridge Eases River Runner Route Congestion

A notorious bottleneck that has delayed Amtrak’s Missouri River Runner trains will be mitigated with the opening of a new bridge.

The Union Pacific built the bridge at Osage City, Mo., over the Osage River and opened it this past week.

The bridge on the former Missouri Pacific mainline between St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., had reduced two tracks to one. With the opening of the bridge the route will be all double track the entire length of the River Runner route

The $25 million project involved building a bridge over the River and installing double track on each side of the bridge for 0.5 miles. The new bridge is downstream of the existing crossing at milepost 116.89.
Missouri Department of Transportation officials think the project cost may end up being as much as $4 million under budget.

Funding for the project came from the Federal Railroad Administration’s High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program.

The bridge had been set to open in December, but was completed ahead of schedule.

Tags: Amtrak's Missouri River Runner, Missouri River Runner, St. Louis-Kansas City Corridor, Union Pacific Railroad