Here’s an unusual recycling effort. Road crews in several northern Iowa counties are now using old railcars to build bridges and culverts. Jim Hyde is the county engineer for Mitchell and Worth counties and says the use of railcars as a building material has numerous advantages. The railcars are also being used in such a way in Floyd and Chickasaw counties. Hyde says using the railcars saves not only time but money as well, adding, the rail cars can handle the amount of weight that normal bridge building material can hold. They don’t use the rail cars for bridges on paved roads, only on less-traveled rural roads. Hyde says they have built a few bridges and culverts with rail cars already and more will be done soon. Four have already been put in and another four railcar bridges will be put in place next year on secondary roads throughout the area.
