Pearl-Richland Intermodal Connector Making Progress

Feb. 8, 2023

Source: Rankin County News

PEARL – The Pearl-Richland Intermodal Connector project will solve a problem that has existed for decades where South Pearson Road heading to Richland intersects with the Kansas City Southern Railroad crossing.

KCS has a switching yard just west of the intersection and as rail workers connect lines of boxcars for shipment to their destination, the railcars frequently block the intersection at South Pearson Road for long periods of time.

The solution to the problem is to build a pair of bridges over the intersection, one bridge for southbound traffic and the other for northbound traffic.

Rick Ferguson, principal owner and senior bridge engineer with the Pickering Firm, said tha the trusses for one of the bridges, which were manufactured in Fort Payne, AL, recently were delivered to the site.

Ferguson reported that each bridge, when assembled and put in place, would be 180 feet long, will have two lanes for traffic and would provide 25 feet of vertical clearance over the KCS tracks.

City of Pearl Special Projects Officer Kathy Bourgeios said the principal contractor on the Intermodal Connector project, T.L. Wallace, has subcontracted with Barnhart first has to submit a lift plan to KCS for review before they can begin work. Because KCS has a daily two-hour work curfew at the site, the erection of the first bridge is expected to take about a month to complete, at which time the trusses for the second bridge will be delivered.

According to Bourgouis, it is anticipated that the two bridges, with striped lanes on them, would be completed in the fall of 2023, at which time the bridges will be opened for traffic.