(The following story by Aaron Porter appeared on The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel website on February 11.)
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — A train that derailed Monday on a bridge above the Gunnison River managed to stay upright, preventing its load of North Fork Valley coal from spilling into the water.
Union Pacific Railroad estimated the branch line would resume service by Wednesday morning.
No coal fell into the river during the accident, and the company said it could remove the derailed coal cars without polluting the water, according to an Army Corps of Engineers official.
“When I went there, I went there expecting to see the worst, but it seemed to be manageable,” said Nick Mezei, environmental engineer.
The 105-car train was travelling west when 16 cars derailed at 9:13 a.m. on an old bridge spanning the Gunnison River just outside Austin, said John Bromley, Union Pacific spokesman. A bridge beam apparently collapsed underneath the track, he said. The dipping rails shifted the cars, causing the derailment, he said.
To restore service, a bridge gang must first remove the derailed cars from the interior of the bridge, which is comprised of steel girders. It will then repair the damaged bridge.
Union Pacific plans to remove the coal from the freight cars, including the one that is straddling the gap, Mezei said. A temporary gravel pad will
allow a dump truck to back into the river underneath the bridge. The company will dump the coal from chutes beneath the cars into the bed of the truck, he said.
The plan is intended to prevent coal from falling into the river and harming water quality, Mezei said. Union Pacific will remove the gravel pad and any other impacts after repairs are completed, he said.
At the scene, the end of one car appeared to be dangling over the river, a set of wheels and the twisted rails still spanning the collapsed area on the bridge. Three cars were derailed on the bridge, and the other 13 were stopped west of the river.
There were no injuries, and the train derailed at a site distant from homes, officials said.
The train carried about 12,000 tons of coal from a mine operated by Bowie Resources Ltd., which is about a day’s worth of mining, said Bill Bear, manager of sales and transportation. It was destined for a power plant in Kentucky, he said.
The derailment will cause delays in shipping, but Bowie’s mining operations were undisturbed, Bear said. Miners continue to produce coal that is being stockpiled at the mine near Paonia until rail traffic resumes, he said. It employs about 225 people and produces about 5 million tons of coal per year.
The track was inspected Sunday, Bromley said. He was uncertain when the bridge had last been inspected.
The bridge has carried trains for a century. It is part of a branch line leading to three coal mines in the North Fork Valley that play an important economic role in Delta County.
Demand is high for the area’s low-sulfur coal, boosting production and employment at the mines. Power plants use local coal to meet federal Clean Air emissions standards by mixing it with cheaper, lower grade coals from other regions.
Union Pacific has performed extensive upgrades to the old branch line that leads across Delta County from Grand Junction. It replaced miles of rail and thousands of railroad ties since it acquired the line several years ago, Bear said.
“We feel that they were handed a railroad that had some delayed maintenance on it, and they’ve been aggressive in bringing it up to standard,” Bear said.