Workers drive pilings for replacement of railroad bridge

Replacement of a collapsed Norfolk Southern Railway bridge over Scotts Creek in James City is still on track for completion on Friday.

On Wednesday, Norfolk Southern employees were driving pipes that will be filled with concrete and reinforced rebar, said Robin Chapman of the company's headquarters in Norfolk.

"Our engineering department is geared up to respond to situations quickly," he said. "It is important to us to keep the trains rolling so when something happens anywhere on the system we have teams ready to go."

They are replacing the corroded steel "H pilings" that collapsed about 10 a.m. Sunday just after a locomotive with 13 freight cars headed for the Morehead City Port passed over. About 10 trains a week bound or returning from the port, Cherry Point, and Camp Lejeune use the Scotts Creek railroad bridge, which is just past the Trent River crossing.

"They will be using the old sections of track that go over it," Chapman said. "They are just replacing the supports."

The railroad typically uses ribbon rail in quarter-mile lengths welded together after being delivered on trains with special cars, Chapman said. The section being replaced is only about 100 feet.

Chapman said the bridge's "last inspection prior to Sunday's event was about two weeks ago. The bridge was scheduled to be replaced about two weeks from now before this happened."

He said Norfolk Southern Railway bridges "are inspected at least once annually. The last formal inspection was March 2007 and at that time the corrosion was observed on the pilings and the bridge has been checked frequently since that date to check on changing conditions."

He said Norfolk Southern Railway has "no record of being contacted by outside parties regarding the condition of the bridge."

In April, a group of canoe and kayak paddlers noticed deterioration of the bridge supports and reported it to the N.C. Department of Transportation's Railroad Division. A member of the group, Elmer Eddy, said they had several exchanges, including sending photos, with a state oversight employee. That employee has been away from his office this week and could not be reached for comment.

The Federal Railroad Administration "is not investigating this bridge incident because it was not a train accident," said Rob Kulat, an administration spokesman.

"Norfolk Southern is contracted by the North Carolina Railroad to maintain and inspect the bridges and we constantly monitor Norfolk Southern's bridge-management practices. We are satisfied with what they do but did not inspect this individual bridge."

Kulat said that "federal employees review the bridge management programs of the railroads and when we do audits, we audit the actual inspection."

In the case of the Scotts Creek Bridge, he said, "we learned about it when Norfolk Southern advised us of the bridge failure. They did call us right away and had already engaged a contractor to repair the bridge before the incident."

The last bridge failure on the Norfolk Southern Railway in North Carolina was of one over Pamlico River in Washington in 1999 after heavy flooding from Hurricane Floyd, Chapman said.

As an example of the efficiency of Norfolk Southern's engineering team response, Chapman cited its work on the six-mile long bridge over Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans.

"Hurricane Katrina swept about five miles into the water and we had that back on line within two to three weeks," he said. "We were proud of that effort."