(The following story by Gregory Richards appeared on The Virginian-Pilot website on December 2.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Rumbling across a wooden trestle bridge in Myrtlewood, Ala., the freight train carried eight segments of the space shuttle’s solid rocket boosters en route to Florida from Utah in May.
Meridian & Bigbee Railroad, which owns the bridge, had put the structure back into service only hours before, following repairs. But something went wrong. Two locomotives and two cars – one carrying a booster piece – tumbled 10 feet onto boggy ground. Six people were injured, at least one critically.
The bridge collapse remains under investigation by the Federal Railroad Administration, the agency that oversees railroad safety, but it drew attention to the safety of the nation’s more than 76,000 railroad bridges.
Unlike road and highway spans, little is publicly known about the condition of rail bridges, which are privately owned. Responsibility for train bridge safety lies with the railroad companies. Inspection data are shared selectively with the federal agency, which monitors railroads’ bridge inspection programs. Yet no federal safety regulations apply to railroad bridges.
Many train trestles date from before 1920, making them much older than the Minneapolis interstate span that collapsed in a deadly accident in August. The loads on aging bridges are increasing as more trains, some with heavier freight, pass over them.
Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman thinks railroads must do better with bridge safety.
“On the large railroads, we have seen far too many situations where critical items noted in internal bridge inspection reports go unaddressed until a near-failure forces action,” Boardman said in prepared remarks for a railway engineering convention in September. “Many smaller railroads display an alarming lack of awareness about what they should be doing to maintain their bridges.
“I can assure you that both policy makers and the public will increasingly demand evidence that railroad bridges are safe. A railroad’s word that ‘all is well’ is not sufficient.”
The railroad agency formally warned railroads in September to properly maintain their bridges, following an analysis of bridge failures between 1982 and 2006. It found that “catastrophic structural failure” of railroad bridges had caused 52 train wrecks, an average of two per year. Two people were injured in those accidents, and there were no fatalities, according to the administration.
Congress joined the debate in October when the House of Representatives approved a bill that makes law the railroad administration’s existing bridge safety guidelines. It requires railroads to inspect their bridges at least annually, and take other steps to guard against bridge failure. The bill is now before the Senate.
Still, the railroad administration believes the nation’s rail bridges are safe, said spokesman Steve Kulm.
“Railroads have strong business and financial incentives to adequately maintain all of their infrastructure, including bridges,” he said.
At least 30 train bridges cross roads and waterways in Hampton Roads, according to the region’s railroads. They are owned by Norfolk-based Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp. of Jacksonville, Fla. – the two big Eastern railways – as well as four short-line railroads.
All six say their bridges are in fine shape and are regularly examined.
Norfolk Southern’s bridges are in “good” condition overall, said James N. Carter Jr., Norfolk Southern’s chief bridge engineer. “They’re adequate to handle the loads that we’re asking them to carry right now.”
CSX spokesman Gary Sease similarly described its bridges as “good.”
Virginia’s most recent bridge-related train accident occurred in 1989 in Orange County, northeast of Charlottesville, according to the administration’s review. Three cars from a 48-car train derailed on a Norfolk Southern bridge with crumbling components. The incident resulted in about $11,000 in damage, but no one was hurt, according to the report.
Bridges maintained by Norfolk Southern and its predecessors were involved in five of the accidents in the 25-year review. The last happened in 1999 outside Montgomery, Ala. Eight cars derailed after track shifted on a bridge, causing $10,000 in damage and no injuries, the report said.
(A fiery October 2006 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train near Pittsburgh – in which several tanker cars containing ethanol slid off a bridge – was not caused by the bridge, Carter said. He would not elaborate, citing a National Transportation Safety Board investigation that is still under way.)
Norfolk Southern thoroughly inspects the roughly 10,300 bridges across its 22-state network at least once a year, Carter said. More critical bridges – such as those more heavily used – are looked over every 30 days, he said. The railroad’s drawbridges across the Elizabeth River are among those that are reviewed monthly.
The railroad’s bridge inspection and maintenance programs meet or exceed both the railroad administration’s guidelines and industry bridge standards, Carter said. Norfolk Southern budgeted $610 million for track and bridge maintenance and improvements in 2007.
The railroad employs one full-time bridge inspector, said company spokesman Robin Chapman. Another 108 workers also inspect bridges, but not exclusively, he said.
Officials with the region’s four smaller railroads – Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line, Commonwealth Railway, Bay Coast and the Chesapeake & Albemarle – all say bridge inspections are done at least once a year.
“All of them have had upgrades within the last year and all of them are in pretty good shape,” said Belt Line President David Gooden, of his short line’s six bridges, including one that crosses the Elizabeth River’s Southern Branch.
The railroad administration does not comment on the bridge safety programs of specific railroads, Kulm said.
The Federal Railroad Administration is most concerned with bridges owned by smaller U.S. railroads.
In its September warning to railroads, the agency said “many” smaller railroads generally met bridge maintenance and inspection guidelines. However, “a considerable number either fell short by a large degree, or showed absolutely no evidence of bridge inspection, management or maintenance.”
Large railroads fared better. “Most” generally conform to federal bridge safety recommendations, according to the report.
Because of the “extremely serious hazards” uncovered in its review, the administration said it may institute mandatory bridge regulations – as Congress is proposing – should conditions not improve.
To look after the nation’s roughly 76,000 rail bridges, the agency has five dedicated bridge inspectors. They are augmented by the 100-plus track inspectors who eyeball rail bridges for anything wrong as they pass by on the tracks, Kulm said.
There is little, if any, government oversight of rail bridges beyond the administration’s efforts.
Officials with Virginia and the five South Hampton Roads cities said they do not specifically inspect railroad bridges. The Virginia State Corporation Commission employs two track inspectors who also look over railroad bridges as they go along, said John Sherrill, the commission’s railroad safety manager.
The railroad administration does review railroads’ bridge maintenance and inspection programs, comparing them with agency guidelines. As part of the reviews, agency inspectors visit a sampling of railroad bridges every year to ensure that inspection reports match actual conditions, Kulm said.
When a problem is uncovered, the agency tries to work cooperatively with the railroad on a resolution. Only if there is an urgent safety concern does it take enforcement action, such as closing a bridge.
The bridge programs of the nation’s seven largest railroads are constantly monitored, Kulm said. And each year, the bridge programs of 25 to 35 of the nation’s roughly 550 smaller railroads are evaluated.
An August report on railroad bridges and tunnels by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, faulted the agency on how it selects smaller railroads for study. Agency inspectors use their own, individual criteria for selecting railroads, rather than a “systematic, consistent risk-based methodology,” according to the GAO study. Because of that, the railroad administration may not be focusing on the railroads with the most at-risk bridges, the study said.
The rail agency is preparing such a system, Kulm said.
The expense of major bridge repairs or replacements makes railroads more likely to pay for other, less costly investments sooner, such as track and signal work, according to the GAO report. Significant bridge projects are likely to be among railroads’ last investment priorities, the agency said.
Railroads have been putting aside bridge maintenance projects for too many years, said Gary Cox, a general chairman of the Teamsters’ Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division, which represents track workers. Now he’s concerned for the safety of his members and the public.
“A lot of people don’t realize how easy it is for a bridge to come down if it’s not maintained properly,” he said.