This is one of three trestles over the Bonnet Carré Spillway--two CN-system and one KCS. This one is relatively north, bordering Lake Pontchartrain; the other two are farther south, closer to the Mississippi River. IIRC, this is the original IC line, and the other CN-system trestle is the old Y&MV line. The spillway is a river flood control structure, so that flooding from the Mississippi River can be avoided by allowing some water to be diverted to the lake, and then through the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Passes to the Gulf of Mexico. Most years the spillway is not opened at all, and when it is opened, it is almost always in the Spring. But it was open very recently, I think the first-ever Winter opening. The work that reportedly resulted in this fire may have been related to effects of the recent spillway opening.
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Makes sense if it was open recently, as all that water from the near-or-actual unprecedented winter precipitation hit the Mississippi and its tributaries hard at St. Louis, and that water would have drained in January. The rainfall played havoc with the UP and BNSF in Missouri; sad to see it compounded down here.
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A wooden bridge, who could have known...
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