Milestone Engineering, Inc. was selected by BNSF to design a 10,000 Track Foot siding located on the Thayer North Subdivision near Turners, Missouri. The project improvements included two (2) new 5-span bridges over Pierson Creek for both the siding and the mainline, two (2) new railroad overpasses to allow residential access to land-locked landowners along the James River, a 10’ x 10’ box culvert extension, jack and bore of two (2) drainage pipes, and closure of an existing at-grade private crossing.

The project was constructed in two phases; Phase I construction began on October 1 and lasted thru December which is the rainy season in southwest Missouri. The entire embankment was constructed from rock fill and the bridges were expedited to get the siding in service before year-end.

Milestone partnered with Wilson & Company to design the four (4) bridges and the box culvert extension. Soil borings had to be completed one for every half-mile for the geotechnical investigation to allow Milestone to determine the design of the embankment and structure foundations. Milestone worked with utility companies to have the underground utilities relocated to allow the new access road to be constructed and to have a new overhead electric powerline installed to provide power to the south end of the project.