In the News: RT&S Recognizes Union Pacific Railroad’s New Omaha Bridge as a Top Project

Each year, Railway Track & Structures (RT&S) highlights 10 standout infrastructure efforts through its Top Projects program, reflecting innovation, complexity, and impact in the rail industry. The 2025 list showcases the dedication and ingenuity driving rail improvements across North America. As RT&S notes, selecting only 10 honorees is both a rewarding and challenging task. For freight companies, this list offers a glimpse into successful project strategies, emerging best practices, and inspiring examples of rail infrastructure excellence.

We are honored to be a part of the project team for the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) Omaha Bridge 23.84 Over the Elkhorn River Replacement project, located in Waterloo, Nebraska. In response to scour remediations due to flooding in 2019, UPRR partnered with GFT to lead the bridge replacement design, ultimately recommending an off-line alignment as the most economical and maintainable solution.

Originally built in 1906, this project addressed the urgent need to modernize a vital two-track mainline structure. The new 898-foot bridge features:

• Standard precast concrete beam end spans.
• Steel plate girder main spans with cast-in-place concrete deck.
• Cast-in-place wall piers founded on driven steel H-piles constructed using sheet pile cofferdams.
• Spray-applied waterproofing system with integrated ballast mat protection.

GFT also provided extensive coordination, track embankment design, and river access planning for structural resilience, environmental compliance, and minimized disruption to this critical freight corridor.

Named one of RT&S’ Top Projects for 2025, the Omaha Bridge 23.84 replacement showcases how ingenuity, innovative engineering, smart design decisions, and careful coordination can solve complex infrastructure challenges. The result: a structure built for durability, efficiency, and the demands of modern freight operations.