Yesterday was moving day on the railroad.

Originally, the plan was to raise the bridge in place using cribbing, then build up the abutments underneath to meet the new grade. But a good friend suggested a better approach: lift the entire bridge out and move it using the forks on the backhoe bucket.

That’s exactly what we did.

With the bridge now safely out of the way, there’s plenty of room to construct the new abutments properly and bring everything up to the correct elevation. It’s a much cleaner—and ultimately more precise—way to tackle the job.

I’ve included a video below so you can see the move in action.