8-836: The Pelham Bay Bridge , also known as the Amtrak Hutchinson River Bridge , is a two-track movable railroad bridge that carries the Northeast Corridor (NEC) over the Hutchinson River in the Bronx, New York , upstream from the vehicular/pedestrian Pelham Bridge . It is owned by Amtrak , which provides passenger service, and is used by CSX Transportation and the Providence & Worcester Railroad for freight traffic. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad completed construction of
16-442: A few are remotely controlled using video-cameras and loudspeakers. Generally, the bridges are powered by electric motors, whether operating winches, gearing, or hydraulic pistons. While moveable bridges in their entirety may be quite long, the length of the moveable portion is restricted by engineering and cost considerations to a few hundred feet. There are often traffic lights for the road and water traffic, and moving barriers for
24-524: A new high-level fixed bridge with clearance for maritime traffic. Preliminary work began in 2013. MTA 's Metro-North Railroad has proposed the Penn Station Access using the bridge for a so-called Hell Gate Line service which would allow some New Haven Line trains to access New York Penn Station . In January 2019, Amtrak and the MTA reached an agreement regarding Penn Station Access. As part of
32-405: The bridge in 1907, which originally consisted of three parallel two-track spans. Amtrak partially rehabilitated it in 2009. The bridge is obsolete and requires extensive ongoing maintenance, with speeds restricted to 45 miles per hour (72 km/h). The lift span is staffed and required to open on demand; it does so several times per day for commercial boats. Amtrak plans to replace the bridge with
40-399: The bridge must be halted when it is opened for passage of traffic on the waterway. For seldom-used railroad bridges over busy channels, the bridge may be left open and then closed for train passages. For small bridges, bridge movement may be enabled without the need for an engine. Some bridges are operated by the users, especially those with a boat, others by a bridgeman (or bridge tender );
48-685: The deal, the MTA would pay to replace the Pelham Bay Bridge. In August 2022 the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) awarded a $ 4.5 million grant to Amtrak for the bridge replacement project. In November 2022 the FRA published its inventory of pending improvement projects for the Northeast Corridor. The report lists the replacement of the Pelham Bay Bridge as one of 15 "Major Backlog Projects" which have
56-427: The highest priority for funding. In June 2023, Amtrak applied for additional FRA grants to support multiple improvement projects in the Northeast Corridor, including additional work on the Pelham Bay Bridge project. Movable bridge A moveable bridge , or movable bridge , is a bridge that moves to allow passage for boats or barges. In American English, the term is synonymous with drawbridge , and
64-399: The latter is the common term, but drawbridge can be limited to the narrower, historical definition used in some other forms of English, in which drawbridge refers to only a specific type of moveable bridge often found in castles. An advantage of making bridges moveable is the lower cost, due to the absence of high piers and long approaches. The principal disadvantage is that the traffic on
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