Nick King photo

Union Pacific says it will save $8 million by using pieces of the Boonville bridge on another project.

BOONVILLE - One day last month, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill huddled in her Washington, D.C., office with Jim Young, CEO of Union Pacific Railroad.

The discussion topic was the unused bridge that spans the Missouri River at Boonville. Union Pacific plans to dismantle it and use some of its steel to construct another bridge to carry freight and Amtrak passengers over the Osage River.

McCaskill’s office has received more than 100 letters from Boonville residents who want the bridge preserved where it is. They believe it’s a notable historic artifact, a potential tourist attraction and a valuable link in the Katy Trail.

Those who attended the meeting said that McCaskill asked UP officials to work with the community and delay removing the bridge until the end of the calendar year. Mark Davis, a UP spokesman, said Young brought the senator "up to speed" on where the railroad was in the process of getting federal permits for the job.

A key number Young brought up during the meeting was $8 million. That’s how much the railroad says it will save in the Osage bridge building project by using salvaged steel trusses from the Boonville bridge, Davis said.

Young’s meeting with McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, came in the wake of a court decision in February that found UP owned the bridge and could decide its fate. With the court case completed, what happens to the 76-year-old structure depends on politics, economics and the process of issuing federal permits.

Ultimately, it might be that Missouri’s next governor will help decide what happens to the bridge.

Those who want to save the bridge say it could become the Katy Trail’s "crown jewel," providing a unique way to hike and bike across the Missouri River. They also point to the engineering significance of the bridge’s 408-foot-long center lift span, which was the longest of its kind in the country when the bridge opened in 1932.

But there are other perspectives as well. Allowing Union Pacific to reuse its truss spans would be an environmentally friendly way of keeping the old bridge alive in a new structure. Recycled steel would help haul more freight faster and more efficiently over the second Osage River span.

UP officials told McCaskill that the project would improve Amtrak’s often-delayed service between St. Louis and Jefferson City. Currently, the railroad’s Osage River crossing is the only place on the UP system between the two cities where the line squeezes down to one track from two.

"With all the traffic on that area, that becomes a bottleneck," said Davis, the railroad’s Omaha-based spokesman. "Part of the plan to help increase the speed of the trains is to get both bridge locations at the Osage and at the Gasconade River to get double-tracked over the years. They got the Gasconade, and the Osage would be next."

Leading up to the April 16 meeting between McCaskill and Young, the senator’s office sent letters to federal agencies inquiring into the project’s status and what permits are still required. Since then, McCaskill has written to her constituents that "Union Pacific’s plan to take down the Boonville Bridge is still subject to regulation by the United States Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers." She said she planned to stay involved in the bridge issue and "hope that any decisions will take full account of the public interest."

McCaskill’s involvement was not the first to be demonstrated by a member of Congress. Records show the office of U.S. Rep. Ken Hulshof, R-Mo., bored into the issue during an earlier stage of its controversy.

Lora Wegman graphic

CAMPAIGN ISSUE

Attorney General Jay Nixon, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, had filed suit to preserve the bridge, principally on the ground that it is an integral part of the 225-mile-long trail that follows the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad bed. When the state acquired the right of way, the MKT railroad retained ownership of the bridge, although the state Department of Natural Resources could use it under certain conditions.

The bridge’s lift span has been permanently raised to let barges pass below. An approach from the Boonville side of the bridge has been removed. The Katy Trail crosses the Missouri River at Boonville over a highway bridge downstream.

The Coast Guard has been calling for the removal of the unused structure since the 1990s. Union Pacific, which bought MKT, launched a plan to dismantle it in 2004. DNR, under Gov. Matt Blunt, elected not to exercise any option to take possession or use the bridge. Nixon’s office sued to block the state’s action but lost.

Nixon’s office is contesting the issuance of a state water-quality permit that would be part of a federal requirement needed for the railroad to transport the bridge pieces to the Osage River. A hearing on that issue is scheduled this fall before the Administrative Hearing Commission in Jefferson City.

"The bridge and the Katy trail are part of Missouri’s heritage and critical to the economic growth of Boonville," said Oren Shur, a spokesman for the Nixon for Governor campaign. "As governor, Jay Nixon will do everything in his power to protect the Katy Trail for all Missourians to enjoy."

Scott Baker, a spokesman for Hulshof’s campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, said lawsuits to preserve the bridge were a waste of taxpayers’ dollars. Baker said Hulshof’s position was that no public dollars should be spent on the bridge issue.

"However, if there is some private arrangement made between the owner and the private groups, he would welcome that," Baker said. "If the owner of the bridge could work out an agreement with a private group, that would be great."

State Treasurer Sarah Steelman, a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, said through a spokesman there were strong feelings on both sides and that she needed more information before making a decision.

"RIGOR MORTIS"

Records show that over the past 10 years of elections, Union Pacific’s political action committee has contributed $32,000 to Hulshof’s congressional campaigns, according to the Opensecrets.org Web site. (The same site shows the UP PAC contributed $2,000 to McCaskill’s campaign during this election cycle and $10,000 in 2006 to the campaign of U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., who lost to McCaskill in the 2006 election.)

E-mails obtained by the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center show that Hulshof’s office asked the Coast Guard about the project’s status in July 2005.

Erik Rasmussen, a spokesman for Hulshof’s Washington office, said the inquiry was in response to "repeated constituent and press inquiries." Rasmussen said the congressman’s interest was based on the fact that bridging the Osage River into Osage County means there would be an action in Hulshof’s Ninth Congressional District. Rasmussen said in an e-mail that the inquiry was handled with a telephone call.

The company that had the original contract for dismantling the Boonville bridge was OCCI, a Fulton-based contracting firm operated by Ted Kettlewell of Columbia. Kettlewell and his wife, Susanna, had contributed about $16,000 to Hulshof’s campaigns.

"Any suggestion that this has anything to do with a contributor is wrong and grasping at straws," Rasmussen said in an e-mail. "Kenny Hulshof has never taken official action based on campaign donations and never will."

Kettlewell, in a telephone interview, said he would not ask a congressman "to weigh in on rinky-dink railroad issues." Kettlewell said his contract to remove the bridge ended three years ago and no one has the job now.

"It’s a dead issue," Kettlewell added. "I thought that thing had gone to rigor mortis and had a headstone over it."

The e-mails also show the Coast Guard encouraged Union Pacific to remove references to the Boonville bridge in its application to construct the new span over the Osage. UP’s original environmental assessment for the Osage River project filed in 2004 referred to using pieces from the Boonville bridge. A resubmitted application in 2007 removed references to the Boonville bridge. The Coast Guard approved the application Jan. 31.

Ron Kucera, who lives in Columbia and is a board member of the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, said the Coast Guard was attempting to skirt requirements of federal laws on historic preservation by "creating a fiction" that the Osage bridge project did not involve materials from the Boonville bridge.

Kucera noted that an Army Corps of Engineers notice on the project issued in 2004 treats the Boonville bridge project and the Osage bridge project as one single project "since they are inextricably linked."

Trail advocates say the bridge is eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. The Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation has listed the bridge among the state’s 10 most endangered historic places.

Roger Wiebusch, a Coast Guard bridge administrator based in St. Louis, said that during the permit application process, the ownership of the Boonville bridge was in question in lawsuits.

"You can’t issue a permit that requires the use of a bridge that a person doesn’t own," Wiebusch said. He said the construction of the Osage River span and the removal of the Boonville bridge were two separate actions.

As it stands now, there is no pending permit to remove the Boonville bridge, Weibusch added.

SHOW THE MONEY

On the banks of the Missouri River at Boonville, cottonwood trees grow up through the bridge’s rusting structure. Courting eagles nest in the tree branches. The south side of the bridge reaches almost into the parking lot of a casino.

Because the bridge is not being used, the Coast Guard considers it a useless hazard to river navigation and says it should be removed. But Weibusch said if it were used as a pedestrian or bike route across the river, that would fulfill its transportation requirement and the bridge could remain.

Nick King photo

Paula Shannon is the chairwoman of a steering committee that wants to save the Boonville railroad bridge in its current form. Union Pacific Railroad wants to dismantle the span, at top, and use parts of it elsewhere.

Paula Shannon, chairwoman of the steering committee of Save the Katy Bridge Inc., says there are donors waiting in the wings who would pay for the project. Some engineering and law firms have offered their services for free.

One $2 million bid would finance a ramp walkway through the bridge with the center span remaining in the upright position, she said.

Shannon said there are similar pedestrian bridges throughout the country that are popular tourist attractions. The bridge would join the trail, the casino and a new steamboat museum as Boonville attractions.

Ken Askren, a member of the steering committee, said some are trying to arrange a meeting with UP executives to broker an agreement to save the bridge.

"I really and truly believe that money will not be a stumbling block about this if we could sit down and talk about it," Askren said. "There are enough interested organizations and individuals that have an affinity for preserving important monuments and buildings and structures. Some have contacted us already."

Askren added that he believed if Nixon were governor, he could get everyone in a room to prompt a resolution.

When asked whether Union Pacific would be interested in making a deal on the bridge, Davis said, "If someone came to us and said, ‘We are interested. Here’s the money. We understand your needs,’ it would be something we would consider."

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