A towboat guiding a line of heavy barges smashed into a little-known railroad bridge in St. Paul last week, knocking its central support structure off-kilter and causing an estimated $500,000 in damages.

The Pig’s Eye Railroad Bridge — a secluded bridge over the Mississippi River near the city’s impound lot, southeast of the Holman Field airport — was hit on the early morning of Oct. 26.

Related Articles Minneapolis and St. Paul to add 70 electric car charging stations with $6.7M grant

Met Council gets final $928.8 million from feds to extend Green Line into southwest suburbs

Metro Transit trims some routes, expands others in coronavirus response

Road restrictions on I-94 Wednesday as beams installed in Dale Street Bridge in St. Paul

Metro Transit to resume near-normal local bus, light rail schedule, but express bus and Northstar remain clipped The vessel that hit it — the “Cooperative Venture,” owned by American River Transportation Co. — was moving several barges with dry goods but nothing was spilled, according to the Coast Guard, which investigated the crash.

Nonetheless, the bridge — owned by Union Pacific railroad — could take some time to fix.

“Hit it pretty good. Over $500,00 in damage. That railroad will most likely be inoperable for quite a while, maybe more than a year,” said Lt. Sean Haley, with the Coast Guard’s Upper Mississippi River sector office.

Union Pacific officials thought that estimate was pessimistic.

“We expect it to be only 30 days to be operable. The work should be done in a month,” said Union Pacific spokeswoman Kristen South.

The southbound vessel struck the swing bridge’s center support structure — its “pier” portion — causing the pier to split from the bridge’s truss.

South said the railroad was experiencing delays rerouting traffic from the line, which links with others that connect from Canada all the way to Mexico.

As for water traffic, the Coast Guard’s Haley said the river at the bridge’s junction will be down to one “span,” or water lane, for both directions until the repair is complete.

American River Transportation Co., based in Decatur, Ill., is a subsidiary of Archer Daniels Midland.

An ADM spokeswoman confirmed Friday that an ARTCO barge and towboat were involved in the collision, and added, “ARTCO reported the incident immediately to the U.S. Coast Guard, and we are working with authorities and the railroad to assess the cause of the incident and extent of the damage.”

Haley said the incident remains under investigation by his office, in cooperation with the National Transportation Safety Board.