Portsmouth's Bartlett Street railroad bridge replacement study gets federal funds

Ian Lenahan, Portsmouth Herald
·2 min read

PORTSMOUTH — The federal government has awarded the city $460,000 for studies tied to replacing the Bartlett Street railroad bridge and reworking the street’s underpass.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program will fund the studies necessary to see about replacing the 135-year-old girder bridge over Bartlett Street. The bridge has exceeded its service life and is now unable to hold “industry standard” freight cars of 286,000-pound gross weight, according to the Department of Transportation.

The city of Portsmouth has received a $460,000 federal grant to begin studies associated with the replacement of the 135-year-old Bartlett Street railroad bridge, which has exceeded its service life and can no longer hold industry standard freight trains.
The city of Portsmouth has received a $460,000 federal grant to begin studies associated with the replacement of the 135-year-old Bartlett Street railroad bridge, which has exceeded its service life and can no longer hold industry standard freight trains.

The bridge runs along CSX Transportation’s Portsmouth location. The city will provide a 25% non-federal match for the project, according to the Department of Transportation.

“The project aligns with the selection criteria by improving ability to meet existing or anticipated demand as it will help CSX and the city of Portsmouth prepare for future project phases to improve railroad operations, safer grade crossings, and enhance economic vitality to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the New Hampshire Port Authority Market Street Marine Terminal and other rail-served customers,” the federal department’s grant announcement reads.

A city announcement noted that U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg informed Mayor Deaglan McEachern of the grant in a phone call Monday.

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According to city leaders, the funding will also identify cost estimates for surface and safety improvements at three CSX Portsmouth branch public grade crossings on Barberry Lane, Maplewood Avenue and Green Street, in addition to the public crossing at Market Street on the CSX Newington Industrial Track.

“This rail project supports the economic vitality of Portsmouth and of the State of New Hampshire by ensuring that efficient and reliable rail transportation can move products in and out of the Port of Portsmouth, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and other rail-served businesses in the city,” McEachern said in a prepared statement. “Railroads have been so central to our economy for the past two hundred years that there is a train depicted on the city seal.”

The Federal Railroad Administration released the grants on Monday, funding that will support 70 rail improvement projects across 35 states and Washington D.C.

The $1.43 billion in funding is the largest ever funding total distributed via the grant program.

“These projects will make American rail safer, more reliable, and more resilient, delivering tangible benefits to dozens of communities where railroads are located, and strengthening supply chains for the entire country,” Buttigieg said in a statement.

The Bartlett Street railroad bridge currently has a clearing of 12½ feet. The project would raise the vertical clearance height to 14 feet, in addition to relocating Bartlett Street and its utilities to a new alignment beneath the new railroad bridge.

The railroad bridge project was the only New Hampshire awardee in the fiscal year 2022 grant cycle.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth's Bartlett Street railroad bridge study gets federal funds