North America English; fast speech please
Environmentally-minded organizations from around the country issued a report this week faulting maintenance and inspections of railroad infrastructure that they say could lead to the potential wrecks of oil trains.
Among them was Riverkeeper, a watchdog over oil trains that regularly traverse the Hudson Valley. The trains can haul 100 cars or more, each carrying 30,000 gallons of crude from the Port of Albany to refineries in New Jersey and beyond.
The report by nearly four dozen Waterkeeper groups included photos of bridges in 15 states that showed crumbling concrete, exposed rebar, and rusted holes in structural steel.
Ed Greenberg, spokesman for the American Association of Railroads, said Wednesday that railroads must document all inspections for review by the Federal Railroad Administration.
Outward appearance, Greenberg said, “does not indicate a bridge’s safety. Inspectors scrutinize a bridge to assess its structural integrity, which is a thorough engineering process.”
Sen. Charles Schumer called for stepped-up inspections last December, armed with photos of deterioration spied by Riverkeeper and others at the Rondout Creek Bridge in Kingston, and two bridges south of Storm King Mountain near the Hudson River.
In a reply to Schumer in March, Sarah Feinberg, acting director of the U.S. DOT, said a Federal Railroad Administration bridge safety specialist inspected the structures in January.
The inspection found concrete deterioration, Feinberg said, but “no conditions were observed that were deemed to jeopardize the immediate safety of the bridges.” And no “unusual movement” of the bridges was observed while freight trains crossed over them.
John Lipscomb, patrol boat captain for Riverkeeper, said Wednesday that when he visited one of the Storm King-area bridges this week, he still saw a cracked foundation, missing bolt nuts, and bolts so loose they could be spun by hand.
He said the conditions were only visible from a boat under the bridge.
“And nothing’s been done to repair the Kingston bridge, either,” Lipscomb said.
Wayne Kocher, who said he was retired after 31 years in railroad maintenance, has taken photos of infrastructure, including the Storm King bridges, used by Schumer and other elected officials.
He acknowleded he's not a structural engineer, but Kocher, of Fort Montgomery, said: “I’ve seen enough missing concrete so it didn’t seem like a safe trestle to me."
