The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad will be replacing an old bridge this summer south of Silverton. The worn and weathered structure sits 2 miles south of Silverton at the mouth of the canyon where the Animas River exits into the Silverton Caldera.

“The actual construction process should be pretty quick,” said Matthew Cunningham, operations and special projects manager of the D&SNG. “We’ve gone with a prefabricated design. The construction period should be anywhere from two to four months.”

The actual age of the old bridge is not known, though there is speculation that it was first constructed in the 1910s. Cunningham, however, thinks he knows when it was last reconstructed.

“The Rio Grande didn’t keep the best records or it has gotten lost over time,” he said, “but from what I’ve found – there’s some old pictures – and it looks like it last had some major work done on it back in 1932.”

Though there has been no major overhaul of the 242-foot bridge in nearly a century, Cunningham says it has been maintained throughout the years. Now that the D&SNG has the funds, however, it will move forward with replacing the bridge in its entirety.

The estimated cost of the bridge’s construction will be just north of $2 million, Cunningham said. Some of the funds will be taken from a grant the D&SNG received in 2020 from the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program through the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The new bridge will be built adjacent to the old one, so the train can still make its scheduled runs to Silverton throughout the spring and summer months while the new bridge is being built.

“I talked to the Silverton Standard last week,” Cunningham said, “just to let them know there won’t be interruptions to the train schedule. I didn’t want anyone up there to go, ‘Wait a minute!’”

The new bridge will maintain the same design as the old one with its open deck look but will have driven steel piling, concrete pier caps and steel I-beam stringers, instead of the wooden structure of the old bridge, which will make it more resilient to flooding.

“We’re generally trying to keep the look and feel of the old bridge with the new one,” Cunningham said.

Once construction on the new bridge is completed, the old bridge will be removed, along with the check dam beneath it, which has been reducing the Animas River’s water flow for nearly one hundred years.

“Removing the check dam will have a more positive impact on the river,” Cunningham said. “There will be less obstruction, and the river will return to a more natural flow than before there was a bridge there.”

Cunningham has been working on the new bridge project for D&SNG for the past four years and is eager to finally get started on its construction.

“It’s been a long road, and we’re excited to really get into it next summer and do it,” he said.

molsen@durangoherald.com