CLEVELAND – The city handed CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern 99 first-degree misdemeanor violations for falling concrete, high weeds, and graffiti issues on railroad-owned bridges and other property within the city, reports WEWS-TV.
Cleveland residents have complained about the railroad property conditions previously to the point that Justin Bibb, Cleveland mayor, asked residents to report the worst situations. Bibb sent letters to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and the two Class I railroads detailing the problem. [see “Cleveland calls on railroads to fix bridges needing ‘critical repairs’,” News Wire, June 9, 2023.]
The city is now proceeding with legal action to correct the public eyesores and safety concerns.
“The violations are part of a general, aggressive code enforcement approach established by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb to force companies to meet their responsibilities,” says David Roberts, chief assistant director of law for code enforcement. “We’re not actually citing them to repair the bridges, that’s a federal requirement, and we have turned them into the federal government to say you need to come out and inspect these bridges. … But even if they want to say that it’s not very serious to have one bridge with graffiti and weeds and crumbling concrete, that’s serious to us; that’s someone’s neighborhood, someone walks through there, someone drives through there.”
The city has also reported the situation to the FRA, asking “the federal agency to conduct structural inspections of all railroad bridges in Cleveland.”
Commenting on the situation and citations, CSX issued a statement:
“CSX’s top priority is the safety and security of our operations, which includes the inspection and maintenance of our bridges and infrastructure. CSX’s bridges are maintained to federal standards and are regularly inspected to ensure their structural integrity. We have been in regular contact with officials in Cleveland regarding on this matter and just last week conducted a tour of our bridges in the city with a group of state officials to address any concerns.
We are reviewing the violations and will respond appropriately.”
Norfolk Southern also responded with a statement:
“Our bridges in Ohio are often landmarks in our local communities — and how they look can be a resident’s first perception of how safe they are. In Ohio, we’ve invested $100 million in installation, rehabilitation, and replacement projects over the last 5 years. In the next five, we anticipate more than $240 million in bridge projects in the state, many of which are referenced in recent reports. While those take time, we’ve been working with local officials to understand and address concerns alongside regular inspections under FRA standards to ensure our bridges remain safe.”
Roberts says that Cleveland is “prepared to move forward on all violations in Cleveland Housing Court if repairs and improvements aren’t started by Sept. 12th.” If found guilty, CSX and NS could face fines of $5,000 per day per violation notice.
Why go after only the railroads. They should also go after the City/County/State. Can’t drive too far from my house and see all the graffiti on all the city & highway bridges. In a majority of cases the graffiti is the only coat of paint they have had in 30/40/50 years.
Also while they physically don’t look like they are crumbling, they are. All highway bridges have a weight limit posted. Transportation department just change the signage every few years. What was good for 40 ton loads 20 years ago, got reposted to 35 tons 10 years ago and is now posted as 30 tons.
As for cutting the grass/ weeds, we’re lucky to get it cut once every 12 to 15 months. This year we were lucky. In this case the weeds were removed twice. They were cut in early may. They experienced a drought. Someone flicked a lit cigarette out window. Fire burned everything around and under bridge. Now you can see the remains of stolen cars & bikes that were under that bridge.
They are going after the RR’s because the government agencies don’t have the money. Private corporations do.
Is the city going after the state and federal government to take care of the graffiti on those bridges?
I remember I was doing some landmark exploring out in the middle of Indiana and came across a CSX bridge over a river. The abutment from the 1889 span was still there but unused and the span long gone. The replacement span looked like a 1920’s affair and was in pretty bad shape. The concrete was brittle and rusty rebar was sticking out everywhere.
This is how the bridge was being fixed. CSX was shaving off the brittle outer concrete and cutting off the rusty rebar. They were then setting up new forms around the old concrete that had their own rebar in the form. Pouring the concrete in and letting it cure on top of the 1920’s era setting. Once the forms are removed, it looks like a brand new bridge.
I kept thinking to myself, does this work actually provide material support by distributing train weight, or does this simply make the bridge “look” normal? Won’t the vibration of the freights make the old concrete start to separate from the new? The steel beams still sit on the flat section of the old concrete.
The term “new wine in an old wineskin” came to mind. It’s been more than 10-15 years since I spotted that bridge, perhaps I should return and see how well this patch job has held up. The CSX work crew was not on site at the time, but I sure wanted to ask them some questions about that approach.
I see them doing this same “repair” to highway overpasses around here all the time John and I wonder.
Is it cosmetic or simply to try and keep the concrete/rebar from weathering more and salt damage to the rebar because it sure can’t be doing anything structurally.
One I notice regularly ten years later the “patch” is all cracks.
One analogy I can give is that it is like a filling for a tooth. If you remove all of the decay and replace it with sound material you can protect the entire structure and keep it serviceable into the future. The key is to remove all of the decay before building back, and this sometimes doesn’t happen.
Does Cleveland really “need” rail service? Sounds like they don’t want it. Pull down and scrap the bridges. Rip-up the tracks and give the R-O-W to trails. CSX and NS obviously won’t be missed.
The Mistake by the Lake complaining about anybody’s property material condition is like Chicago complaining about jaywalking on the South Side. Oh well, at least they’re not Detroit.
The graffiti complaint was the one that caught my attention. Can someone from Cleveland tell us if the city is willing to prosecute the graffiti “artists”?
Seems like blaming the victim, the railroad being the victim of graffiti, not the perp of graffiti.
Mr. Landley, The railroads don’t vote.
The graffiti “artists” do…