The Lansing River Trail

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  • The work crews have finished the riverbank repair under the S Washington Avenue bridge. They really did a better job this time slopping the rocks out into a more natural bank with a sort of step of rocks at the foot of the drive that would brake the runoff with a kind of waterfall and a low spot to collect the water and stop erosion. They put up a nice wood railing and repaved the path. They also graded the small drive there so the runoff would flow into the woods. It looks like a whole lot of rocks right now but I think with some weathering of the stones and green plants filling in it will look better soon, some turtles had already claimed some of the rocks for sunbathing. Now the trail is open with no detour.
  • Not sure where to put this, but I found an interesting twitter account of a rail fan who takes pictures and video of the trains coming through the area largely from or around the Lansing River Trail, though some are just general railfan pictures: River Trail Railfan. Here are a few photos I found interesting:

    This is one of the general shots showing that the line down to the southwest side is still in sporadic use. This is Jackson and Lansing Railroad (JAIL) down by QD's headquarters making a trip back from Reid Machinery on August 1st:

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    The westbound Amtrak Blue Water on the same day from Aurelius Road:

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    A CN train from the River Trail over Pennsylvania on May 15:

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    I've always been interested in how the parks and trail interact with the surrounding infrastructure, and this twitter account really highlights it.
  • This is very cool, thanks for sharing it. The rails are also cool since we've seen so many rail-to-trail conversions. Traverse City has a very extensive trail system and the trail that runs behind the state campground in TC also has active rails alongside it. It would be really cool if the rail lines in the Lansing area could extend their easements to allow for building a trail system alongside.
  • I really enjoy these pictures. I see our little Blue Water Amtrak train pass by every morning and evening from my kitchen window. I love the new locos.
  • Does anyone know if the train bridge there on Pennsylvania gets hit at all by moving trucks and stuff? It reminds me of the 11foot8 bridge that has it's own Youtube channel. They recently raised it 8 inches to 12foot4, but it still gets hit occasionally. Makes me wonder if this one every peels the tops off of unwary drivers.
  • I checked Google Streetview and there are some gnarly scratches along the roof of the bridge. Would be a great place to set up a webcam, even covertly if it's battery operated or you can somehow get an extension cord out there.
  • edited August 2020
    Yes, I believe the last time it was hit was not all that long ago, maybe a few years.

    Edit: Here's a story from last year, in fact. Here's one from 2014. From that latter article:
    It was not first time a truck has become wedged beneath the railroad bridge, which is marked with low-clearance warnings.

    Some pictures:

    Truck-stuck-under-bridge-near-Potter-Park-3.jpg

    Truck-stuck-under-bridge-near-Potter-Park-2.jpg
  • It used to be part of my daily commute and I witnessed at least one Penske truck nail it. Based on the chipped concrete, I'm guessing it's as common as the YouTube celebrity haha.

    They can't go much deeper though...if you look at the river adjacent and the road under the bridge, the road is lower. Which also explains the flooding problem lol...
  • edited August 2020
    Yeah, I was going to mention that the underpass is basically underground, already. lol It's flooded much more often than it being taken out of commission because of too-tall trucks. This is always the part of town that gets flooded the worst given its elevation. It's why the city has spent a good decade buying out homeowners in the neighborhood to the west on the other side of the river.

    The thing has flashing lights on it and everything, so this is really the fault of trucking companies not advising properly on available routes. They'd definitely have to raise the grade of the rail line. It makes me wonder how costly it would be given that you'd have to raise it in each direction for quite a ways.
  • I have had the thought of raising Penn. Ave up to the bridge level. I could see two center lanes going over a gated crossing via an elevated roadway for trucks and through traffic and the outside lanes remaining at ground level going under the bridge for local traffic like the zoo and the BWL. Or it would be nice if CN would build a new bridge, this one looks in pretty rough shape and I think it is nearly 100 years old.
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