(The Omaha World-Herald posted the following article by Stacie Hamel on its website on May 16.)
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific has been fined $100,000 and ordered to repair the surfaces of 10 rail crossings in Arizona.
The problems included crumbling pavement and wood and, at one crossing, protruding rebar, said Arizona Corporation Commission spokeswoman Heather Murphy.
“To use the words of a railroad safety adviser, the crossings were in ‘deplorable condition,’ ” she said.
The commission ordered that repairs be made within 60 days to avoid added fines of $1,000 per day for each unrepaired crossing. Repairs have been made at one or two of the crossings.
“We are going to fully comply with the order and will repair the crossings involved as soon as possible,” said John Bromley, a U.P. spokesman. “We’re embarrassed by the outcome of this and, hopefully, we’ll mend fences in Arizona as quickly as we can.”
The remaining crossings are badly deteriorated and will require reconstruction, he said.
It is unusual for crossing maintenance issues to reach the commission, let alone to bring fines, Murphy said.
The fine is the largest levied for a crossing maintenance violation in the commission’s 91-year history.
“They had opportunities to correct the problems, and they failed to do that,” Murphy said, referring to U.P. “And they also had opportunities to say, ‘Gee, it’s too bad it came to this, and we’ll take care of the problems.’ And that didn’t happen either.”
Laws governing maintenance and repair of railroad crossings vary among states, but railroads and highway authorities generally share the responsibility, according to the Association of American Railroads.
“The rule nationally pretty much is that railroads are responsible for maintaining signals and the track infrastructure at a grade crossing. Highway authorities are responsible for maintaining road surface,” said Tom White, AAR spokesman.
Arizona law holds railroads responsible for maintaining a crossing and two feet on either side, including surface repairs and reconstruction.
The railroad delayed repairs while trying to negotiate to share repair costs with municipalities where the 10 crossings are located, Bromley said.
There might have been shared-responsibility agreements at one time, Murphy said, when the lines were owned by Southern Pacific, which merged with Union Pacific in 1996.
Statute is clear, however, she said. “The responsibility lies with the railroad.”
Reconstructing a crossing costs about $1,250 per foot, Bromley said. Repair for a crossing at a two-lane road, for instance, would cost about $37,500.
With more than 37,000 crossings on the U.P. lines, maintaining them “is a huge issue,” he said.
Bromley called it unfortunate that the case reached the point of a fine.
“We will rectify this quickly,” Bromley said. “Everybody hates rough crossings…. We’re well aware of that, painfully aware of it in this case.”