(The following article by Justin McIntosh was posted on the Marietta Times website on January 3.)
MARIETTA, Ohio — Virginia Street was reopened to traffic Tuesday, a little more than two weeks after eight coal-filled rail cars jumped their track at a bridge overpass and crashed down onto the roadway below.
The roadway, which sees about 1,730 cars a day and has been closed since Dec. 19 when the CSX rail cars derailed, will be maintained as a two-way street, though its width has been reduced by about 6 feet, said Washington County Engineer Bob Badger.
The road was narrowed and the center line relocated, Badger said, to accommodate CSX’s temporary bridge built over the roadway after the derailment. Badger advises motorists using the roadway to exercise caution. Poles with diagonal yellow and black striping and orange and white construction barrels alert motorists to the changes.
A permanent bridge is not expected to be built for another nine months, Badger said. Also, any work the county does on the project will be billed to CSX.
“We’re going to bill them but how long it takes us to get through their bureaucracy we don’t know,” Badger said.
CSX officials said it has taken about two weeks to clean up the mess because of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Also, a temporary bridge for the railroad needed to be built and the eight derailed rail cars were each carrying about 100 tons of coal, though most of the coal was salvaged because most of the derailed cars didn’t open completely.
CSX officials and state and federal railroad officials still don’t know what caused the trains to derail, but they have determined the bridge did not collapse on its own accord.
Kim Freely, spokesperson with CSX, said a cause should be known by the 7 p.m. Jan. 12 public meeting in Marietta.
“The cause is still under investigation, but we hope to have an answer by Jan. 12,” Freely said.
Matt Butler, spokesman with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Transportation Division, said the state commission is still assisting the federal railroad administration in their investigation and would not expect a cause to be known for a few more weeks.
“Typically an investigation like this is pretty quick, but in this case it looks like it’s a little more complicated than your typical train derailment given that the bridge was involved,” Butler said.
Marietta Mayor Michael Mullen said he was looking forward to the Jan. 12 public meeting to get more answers, particularly for citizens living near the railroad tracks.
“If the train derailment had happened in the neighborhood or some instances where there are houses in close proximity to the railroad, it could have been a disastrous outcome,” Mullen said. “Citizens have concerns when trains are that close to their property and we want everybody to have an opportunity to address those directly.”
If you go
What: Public meeting to discuss the Dec. 19 CSX train derailment.
When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 12.
Where: Lookout Park, 801 Lancaster St.
Who: The meeting will include city officials and representatives from CSX, AEP and possibly the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Transportation Division. The public is invited to attend.