HANNIBAL, Mo. -- The U.S. Coast Guard is reporting that the Norfolk Southern's railroad bridge, which spans the Mississippi River in Hannibal, is again open to river traffic. "Right now there's no restrictions to operations," said Lt. Rob McCaskey of the Coast Guard. "The Coast Guard encourages all mariners to listen to the radio and refer to the Web for any 'nav' notices that may effect operations on the river."
On Monday, the Coast Guard's river update included a notice reporting that the bridge was "immobilized in the closed-to-navigation position due to mechanical failure."
Rudy Husband, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern, says the problem is a broken coupling on one of the drive shafts.
"That has to be replaced and until it's replaced we're working off our auxiliary system which is slower," he said.
Monday afternoon, the Coast Guard was reporting it was taking 10 minutes to raise or lower the bridge. The typical amount of time necessary to perform that task is three minutes.
"They can still operate it, however, mariners have to give them a 30-minute heads-up before they come through. That is not a problem. They always call ahead of time, it just requires them to call 30 minutes ahead of time," said McCaskey.
According to Husband, the problem arose Sunday afternoon. The Coast Guard's bridge branch was notified of the problem Sunday.
Husband says it could take "a couple of weeks" to secure the necessary part and complete repairs.
"When the part comes in they'll have to close it down for a short period of time to do the maintenance," said McCaskey.
(The preceding article by Danny Henley was published February 17, 2009, by the Hannibal Courier-Post.)
