(The Charleston Post and Courier posted the following article by Prentiss Findlay on its website on April 3.)
RAVENEL, S.C. — Patrick Frazier has a good life. A two-story house, a long dock on the Wallace River, a sportfishing boat, a loving family. But he worries about the condition of a nearby railroad bridge.
From his boat, he pointed to piling where slabs of missing concrete revealed long rods of rusty steel. “We’ve seen a pretty rapid deterioration over the past two years,” he said. “Eventually, it’s going to come down.”
He fears a chemical spill or nuclear waste or weapons being dumped into the tidal waters. The bridge, where the Wallace River and Rantowles Creek empty into the Stono River, is part of a heavily traveled north-south route for freight and Amtrak trains, he said. The nearby Stono River is an Intracoastal Waterway route.
The Stono River side of the bridge foundation looks the worst. Rusting rebar is exposed to salt air because the concrete that it was designed to reinforce has crumbled away.
Frazier, a former Navy deep-sea diver who repairs high-tech diagnostic medical equipment at East Cooper Regional Medical Center, said CSX railroad has been unresponsive to his concerns and those of his neighbors.
CSX spokeswoman Meg Sacks said the company’s rail lines meet or exceed requirements of the Federal Railroad Administration. She said tracks are inspected twice weekly, and the piling’s appearance does not mean the bridge is unsafe.
“We don’t usually do aesthetic work, but certainly if there is a concern in the community, we can have folks look into this,” Sacks said.
Railroad administration spokesman Warren Flatau said many railroad bridges were built to carry steam locomotives that are much heavier than modern trains. Railroads are required to employ certified, competent bridge engineers, he said.
Like Sacks, Flatau said the appearance of a bridge does not necessarily mean it’s unsafe. “In some cases, it’s merely bridge aesthetics. More often than not, when we do go out, many of the concerns are aesthetics. As a general rule, the larger railroads are pretty responsible,” he said. Flatau said the federal agency would look into the safety of the bridge.
Last week, the agency announced that its inspection of CSX operations uncovered 199 serious cases of noncompliance with federal regulations.
Officials conducted 583 inspections over a four-day period in January, three days after a derailment in East Rochester, N.Y. The probe also found 3,518 defects or evidence of noncompliance with federal rail safety or hazardous materials regulations in the 23 states where CSX operates.
While the agency noted about 10 percent of its defects were found in New York, its Office of Public Affairs provided no breakdown on the findings in the other 22 states.
The inspection results “demonstrate that despite general improvement by CSX, the railroad is still not doing enough to make safety a top priority,” agency Administrator Joseph Boardman told the Associated Press.
CSX Chief Executive and Chairman Michael Ward said he has assured Boardman that CSX will move promptly and aggressively to address safety concerns through heightened inspection standards and other special initiatives.
“Safety is our top priority, and we welcome the FRA’s inspections and insights. We are committed to working closely with FRA on all safety issues,” Ward said in a statement posted last week on the CSX Web site.