Bridges Monthly Update #3

26,June 2006

MAJOR YEAR FOR BRIDGWORK!!

The two properties will be spending nearly $5 million in Capital on bridge rebuilds and repairs in 2006. This is over twice the historical average that was spent in the bridge departments in the past. There will be six Company crews and as many as four contracting crews working at one time on the two properties. There will be four major projects, two on each property, and several other lesser projects over the course of the year that are summarized below:

· The bridge 1500 project, the Missouri River Bridge at Pierre SD, is the focal point of this year’s Bridge Capital program. The deck and rail portions of this project were completed over the past weekend. This project is being completed 100% with DM&E labor including all three B&B crews under foremen Johnson, Stark and Evan. Crane Operator Maines has also been instrumental in the progress of this project and all track forces close to Pierre have assisted in one form or the other over the last several weeks. There is still much work to do including walkways and guard rails, but the crews will take a 2 month break from this bridge to catch up on their other work on their respective territories.

· Bridge #K716 on the north end of the Marquette sub was completed earlier in the year and all slow orders removed from the area. Inspections indicate the repair was a complete success and the bridge is now rated for 286,000 #s.

· Another major project on the IC&E that was completed by the E-80 contracting crew in late March was bridge # S-542 at MP 8.5 on the Owatonna sub. This repair also has enabled us to remove a slow order and has enabled 286,000# loads to be handled in the area.

· The final major bridge project is the approach spans for bridge #1659 near Nowlin South Dakota where an E-80 crew drove pile and installed concrete “pans” making a ballast deck approach for the truss. This bridge was just recently completed and ballast has been dumped. This crew will relocate to bridge 1703 near MP 562.8 to do more piling work,

· There will be several other significant projects that we will report on as the year goes on.