(The following story by Joie Tyrrell appeared on the Newsday website on July 22.)
NEW YORK — Thousands of newly installed concrete railroad ties expected to last more than 50 years must be replaced after some of them started to crack and fracture, Long Island Rail Road officials said yesterday.
LIRR President James Dermody said not all of the ties are faulty, but so many have had problems recently that the railroad is replacing an entire 6.2-mile section of 16,000 ties between Jamaica and Long Island City that were manufactured by Rocla Concrete Tie Inc. of Denver.
Dermody blamed the problem on a bad batch of concrete and said that more ties may need to be replaced next year in the same corridor. Also, cracks have been discovered in another section of the railroad with ties manufactured by Rocla, along all four tracks between Jamaica and Queens Village that were installed in 2001.
“We’re convinced it’s a batch problem – the mixture that went into it,” he said.
An LIRR committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved spending more than $3.6 million yesterday to replace the ties and complete other related track work. A total of 16,000 ties, which were installed in 1997-98, will be replaced.
The railroad has installed up to 200,000 concrete ties throughout the system so far, but has not found the problem in other locations. However, Dermody said both MetroNorth Railroad and Amtrak have experienced similar problems with cracked ties made by Rocla. MetroNorth is expected to start replacing some of its concrete ties next week.
The ties themselves are under warranty for 25 years, but the railroad and the manufacturer are working out the details of who will pay for installation and labor. Rocla officials did not return a telephone call for comment.
“The railroad shouldn’t be footing the bill for any of the repairs regarding the deteriorating railroad ties,” said James McGovern, chairman of the LIRR Commuter’s Council.
Dermody said routine inspections revealed the problem about six months ago and railroad workers starting replacing cracked ties. But as they discovered more cracks, railroad workers realized the problem wasn’t just with a few pieces. The railroad has since removed about 500 ties.
“It was more and more of a pattern,” he said.”We’d get a bad one and have to remove one or two right alongside of it.”
Dermody said the LIRR plans to replace the ties starting in October with minor disruptions to the weekend schedule. But he also said it’s likely that another 16,000 will have to be replaced next year.
He also said the railroad has hired a consultant to oversee the manufacturing of the ties.
In 2002, railroad officials said concrete ties make the ride smoother and last much longer than their wooden predecessors.