I found the link to the full NTSB report on Bayou Canot.
http://ntl1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?websearch&site=dot_railroads
Go there and click on the year 1993. It is the first rpeort, noted as Amtrak.
Also a good source for older accident reports
Yes that is a KCS RR bridge at Vicksburg, Ms. When I was in college drove over the bridge which was a narrow 2 lane toll road with the IC track on the south side. Naturally was on the bridge at night with a 4 unit diesel train crossing along side of me. The bridge shook so much I finally almost stopped until train vacated bridge at about a 10 MPH speed. Bridge closed to automobiles the day I-20 bridge over Mississippi river opened.
A few years ago the western bridge support column was found displaced and KCS shut down the route until repairs made. Think it was caused by scouring of foundation but not sure? This bridge IMHO probably is the one choke point that could shut down the “speedway” at any time. Could happen this spring when the Mississipppi River will be high from all the winter snow melt runoff.
One of the most important bridge failure is one that did not occurr on the Oakland Bay bridge. 1989 world series earthquake failed a section but it fortunately fell on the lower deck. That got California DOT to plan a replacement. The first stage was replacing of a segment that shut the bridge over labor day. An in depth replacement inspection found potential eyebolt cracks which extended the shutdown. More inspections later found other eyebolt cracks that again shut the bridge to traffic. These are DOT engineers that are really doing their job.
However any large earthquake that has an earth shift would bring the present bridge down. A report today states that parts of Chile moved 10 ft to the west. Old bridges designed for that ? No. Newer bridges? maybe. Suspect suspension bridges might do better? PDN any comments?
Nothing about the Custer Creek bridge washout on the Milwaukee? This happened in 1938 a few miles northeast of Miles City. MT. OTOH, a washout is a bit of a different prblem than a straight bridge failure.
Not a railroad bridge, but one of history’s more catastrophic bridge failures nevertheless. Here, the Minneapolis I35W Bridge poses innocently in the sun, making no mention of its imminent plan to become famous on August 1, 2007.
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On that same line, there is a much larger, multiple span deck girder bridge on stone piers spanning the Minnesota River at Carver, MN. In earlier times, the M&StL routinely had commercial divers enter the river and inspect the bedding of the stone piers. Over the last 20 years or so, one of those stone piers has settled unevenly, apparently due to the river scouring out the bedding for the pier.
Before operations ended, that pier was tipped toward downstream so that its top was about 12”-18” out of alignment. It was very visible as a large dip and offset in the bridge deck, and in just looking at the pier compared to the rest of the piers. I found it hard to believe that U.P. continued to use the bridge when the pier bedding was so obviously compromised. How could you be sure of the pier performance at any given train event when the condition of the pier was obviously changing over time? How many degrees can you tip a GP-38 before you concentrate so much extr
Thanks much, steve14 ! That’s what I surmised happened to it. I’d seen that website recently, but it doesn’t seem to be linked or clearly referenced from the NTSB’s main on-line site. So that’s a good one to save for future reference. For what it’s worth, I got a slightly different URL for the INVESTIGATIONS OF RAILROAD ACCIDENTS 1911 - 1993 - Table of Contents page -
http://ntl1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?toc&ds=82
And here’s the direct link to the Amtrak No. 2 - Sunset Limited Bayou Canot accident report - it’s 70 pages, approx. 4.23 MB in size for the ‘PDF’ format version:
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On that same line, there is a much larger, multiple span deck girder bridge on stone piers spanning the Minnesota River at Carver, MN. In earlier times, the M&StL routinely had commercial divers enter the river and inspect the bedding of the stone piers. Over the last 20 years or so, one of those stone piers has settled unevenly, apparently due to the river scouring out the bedding for the pier.
Before operations ended, that pier was tipped toward downstream so that its top was about 12”-18” out of alignment. It was very visible as a large dip and offset in the bridge deck, and in just looking at the pier compared to the rest of the piers. I found it hard to believe that U.P. continued to use the bridge when the pier bedding was so obviously compromised. How could you be sure of the pier performance at any given train event when the condition of the pier was obviously changing over time? How many degrees can you tip a GP-38 before
Depends - on a lot, including the span distances, the height, the required clearance widths and heights underneath, availability, economics, detour routes and disruption to the subject route and the detour routes, etc.
Recall that the longish - 3,000 ft. ? - UP trestle across the Sacramento River and mainly its floodplain (if I’m remembering right ) that burned from an arson about 2 years ago was replaced by pre-cast concrete sections that UP just happened to have already stockpiled for other projects elsewhere on the system.
Here in the East, a 50 ft. long 2-arch-span concrete and masonry bridge on the ex-Reading Railroad SEPTA double-track R-5 route was washed out in a heavy rain storm - Tropical Storm Allison - in 2001. It was repalced with a 3-span steel ballasted deck-girder bridge over twice as long - 114 ft. - in about 5 weeks. The rush project was the subject of a paper at the AREMA 2002 Conference, which was still available ‘on-line’ as of last week. See Emergency Bridge Replacement – SEPTA R-5 Line Undergrade Bridge 15.54 at -
Are failures on concrete bridges really rare? I was reading about some of the concrete bridges on the DL&W (?). They looked like they were built like a brick sh…station house. Some of the rock viaducts/bridges appear to be just as well built.
Other than damage caused by moving water - such as washouts, undermining, or scour, etc. - yes, really rare. Offhand, I can’t think of a single failure of either concrete or masonry bridges other than those causes. Sure, they’ll spall and drop chips and rocks, but that’s usually more cosmetic and just disturbing to those below than as an indication of loss of structural capacity.
You got it right - those DL&W bridges will be there for a loooonnng time. Back then the technology was so new that a huge factor of safety was used. And, the concrete was made locally, so it wasn’t too much more expensive to just use more. Plus, the dead-load weight of the bridge dwarfs the live-load weight of the trains, which is usually just a small fraction more. Concrete gradually gains a little more strength as it cures, which is technically a never-ending process, too. Fnally, they’re so massive that the train loads are spread out over very large areas, so the unit stresses are much lower than for steel or wood structures that are constructed of built-up members.
A lot of those bridges are still standing 100 years later - like the DL&W’s - or 150 years - Starrucca and Thomas Viaducts. Also around almost as long are the James J. Hill Bridge over the Mighty Miss at St. Paul, and the PRR’s/ CR’s / NS’ stone Rockville Bridge across the Susquehanna River; also the stone bridge in Johnstown that took the brunt of the 1888 (?) flood, and 2 or 3 more since then, and is still there and carrying heavy traffic.
Yes, Paul…that’s a famous one…and has been added to {in width} many decades ago to accept 4 tracks. Floods of: 1889…1936 and 1977.
Paul, you missed it by one year (I did have to look it up); the flood came down 5/1/1889. you were off by 1 out of 121.
Your mentioning this flood reminded me of warnings such as, “Don’t play with matches; remember the Chicago fire.” On hearing this, one little boy responded, “Don’t spit; remember the Johnstown flood.”
Some years back one of the bridges across the Susquehanna(?) river in or near Harrisburg, Pa had a major structure failure. The bridge did not collapse but a chunk of it, I think, fell into the river.
I do not remember the year but this was a former Pennsylvania Railroad bridge, built in the 1800’s. I think this happened after the Conrail breakup.
Thx IGN
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge eyebolt crack is something that has failed before elsewhere. In the late 60’s or early 70’s a bridge over the Ohio River failed and was traced back to a metal problem with a cast eyebolt. The eyebolt had a flaw in the casting with the steel when it was poured. The bridges that have this kind of architecture are few and far between.
The most well known other that the cantilever section of the SF Oakland Bay Bridge I can think of is the Queensboro Bridge in NYC connecting Manhattan with Queens.
Most bridges are built with a fair amount of give built in, to take some of the normal stresses of varying loads.
I close with this comment, I am not any kind of expert on this subject just read a lot of odds and ends.
Rgds IGN
You’re thinking of the Silver Bridge collapse of December 15, 1967. It was an eyebolt suspension bridge, where the eyebolt was a single point of failure. Primary lesson learned was to design bridges with more structural redundancy, unfortunately the I-35W bridge was designed before the Silver Bridge collapse.
The Bay Bridge was built with some redundancy, even though one piece of the upper deck fell in the Loma Prieta quake, the rest of the structure was intact.
I believe you’re referring to the Rockville Bridge - consisting of many stone arches - which leads from the northern part of Harrisburg over to Marysville and the Enola Yard there. Some of the masonry over one of the piers did indeed collapse, as I recall - it may have occurred in mid-winter due to freezing and thawing, and the piers may be a little hollow or just filled with earth, which would have allowed that to occur. I believe the damaged and repaired pier/ section in just in front and below the lead locomotive in this linked photo, where the light-colored concrete and shiny metal railing is:
http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/7/2/1/6721.1240660517.jpg
Did not the Penn central lose a couple spans of its brindge at Shock’s Mill (sp?) after hurricane Agnes (1972)?
They are pretty rare. Back in the earl 90’s or late 80’s the Wisconsin & Calumet RR had a bridge failure do to ice at Lone Rock, WI. The train lost 4 covered hoppers of grain in the Wisconsin River and came within inches of having some coal follow them in. The wreck was in the Wisconsin State Journal.
And the IC&E had a few a couple of years ago when we had all the flooding in the Midwest.
It was a couple years before the ConRail breakup, and the bridge - which has 48 arches ! - was built in 1900-1902. Here’s a little narrative from a website on Pennsylvania’s historical roadside markers, at:
http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=638
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