X

Senator calling for more federal inspectors for North Country's 144 privately-owned rail bridges

Posted 8/2/18

With 144 privately owned rail bridges in the North Country and more than 3,000 others in the state, Sen. Charles Schumer’s office says he is calling on the Federal Railroad Administration to add …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Senator calling for more federal inspectors for North Country's 144 privately-owned rail bridges

Posted

With 144 privately owned rail bridges in the North Country and more than 3,000 others in the state, Sen. Charles Schumer’s office says he is calling on the Federal Railroad Administration to add bridge inspection and audit specialists.

According to Schumer’s office, 1 percent of the 70,000 to 100,000 privately-owned train bridges across the entire country are audited in any given year.

In New York, there are only three specialists assigned to the more than 3,000 privately owned train bridges, and the specialists are also responsible for bridges in over a dozen other states.

The senator’s office said that, given dense caseload, it is nearly impossible for these federal specialists to address all of the potential safety concerns surrounding these bridges and, as a result, safety issues across New York state and the country may be slipping through the cracks.

Many of these bridges are owned by companies like CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Canadian Pacific and used predominantly for freight shipping, including the transport of hazardous material and crude oil, Schumer’s office said.

However, under current law, while public roadway bridges must be inspected at least every other year—a task which in New York State falls to the state Department of Transportation (NYSDOT)—privately owned railroad bridges do not have this same requirement. Instead, train companies like CSX or Norfolk Southern are required to self-inspect their own train bridges once every year and are subject to oversight by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the senator’s office said.

For this reason and the fact that these bridges crisscross popular local roads traveled by thousands of people daily, Schumer said the safety of the rail bridges across upstate New York is a priority and, therefore, announced he will continue to push for an increase in FRA rail bridge inspector staff. Schumer’s office said that federal inspectors are imperative in ensuring that private railroad companies are keeping bridges safe and there must be more manpower to ensure bridges across upstate New York are not deteriorating or at risk of collapsing.

“New York has provided a vital geographic rail link between the Midwest and East coast ports for centuries, in addition to moving thousands of passengers by rail each day. As a result, the rail bridges that carry these freight and passenger trains over other roadways and bodies of water on a daily basis are often carrying heavier shipments than they were designed to with increasing frequency. Schumer said this means these bridges are likely to be deteriorating at a faster rate and, therefore, are in desperate need of inspection and auditing to ensure the safety of passenger trains and the communities through which freight trains run. However, Schumer said, despite the clear need to keep up with the maintenance and inspection of these train bridges, there is simply not enough manpower on the federal level to inspect and audit these bridges on schedule. That is why Schumer is pushing to increase the number of federal railroad bridge safety specialists nationwide,” according to a prepared statement from Schumer’s office. “Schumer explained that the FRA plays a vital oversight role, ensuring that the owners of these bridges are investing adequately in their maintenance and following the required load restrictions. However, currently, there are too few Bridge Safety Specialists employed by the FRA to properly monitor and audit the entire system. Schumer said the limited number of Bridge Safety Specialists and the overall national inventory of rail bridges raises significant concerns about the specialists’ ability to properly audit the bridges and ensure that they meet design and engineering standards.”