Minn. inspectors raise concerns about railroad bridges, including one in Moorhead - INFORUM
Those and other problems led inspectors to declare 71 bridges in "poor" condition, a rating considered the equivalent of structural deficiency. Although precise comparisons to road bridges are difficult to make, the condition of rail bridges appears worse than that of road bridges. Just over 10 percent of Minnesota's highway bridges are considered in poor condition, although the inspection process is somewhat different. An MPR News examination of public railroad bridge inspection reports found that in many cases, local and state inspectors have complained for years about deteriorating railroad bridges without action from the railroads. In most cases, inspectors could not examine the decks of railroad bridges because railroads refused inspectors access. The four big railroad companies operating in Minnesota—BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway Limited and Union Pacific—declined requests for interviews about railroad bridge safety, but all responded by email saying... BNSF said, for example, it has invested more than $10 million in capital structures last year and this year to replace or partly replace 30 structures in the state. When state and local inspectors look at a railroad bridge crossing over a roadway, they give a condition ranking of 0 to 9 to each of three bridge parts: the deck, the superstructure and the substructure. Source: www.inforum.com
