WASHINGTON — Canadian Pacific Kansas City has asked federal regulators to wade into a dispute with Wisconsin officials regarding emergency repairs the railway made to a bridge over the Menomonee River in Milwaukee.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is threatening to sue CPKC for its 2017 bridge work, arguing that it was performed without the necessary studies and permits. State officials also want CPKC to undo the repair work and then use a different repair method.
CPKC last week asked the Surface Transportation Board to issue an order declaring that federal law preempts enforcement of Wisconsin’s environmental permitting requirements.
“In late 2017, CPKC discovered that the Menomonee River had severely eroded the river bed surrounding and under an abutment on a CPKC railroad bridge. The bridge needed emergency repair. CPKC notified the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (“DNR”) of its plans for this emergency repair. In response, DNR cited certain state law provisions that, according to DNR, required extensive studies, a different repair method, and a lengthy permit process before the work could be done,” CPKC said in its filing with the STB. “Due to the urgency and seriousness of a potential bridge failure, and consistent with Board and Court precedent that [federal law] preempts state pre-construction permitting requirements, CPKC made the emergency repairs in line with accepted practice, causing the least disruption to the busy freight and passenger rail line, and holding to the highest degree of safety.”
The Menomonee bridge at Milepost 88.74 on CPKC’s Watertown Subdivision carries 16 freights per day — including those that handle hazardous materials — as well as Amtrak’s Empire Builder.
An October 2017 bridge inspection found significant scouring around and under one of the bridge abutments. “This created an emergency situation: because one of the abutments was no longer fully supported by the river bed, the bridge was in danger of becoming structurally unsound,” CPKC told the STB.
CPKC pumped grout into the void and then installed a grout mat filled with cement to protect the bridge against further scour.
Wisconsin officials say CPKC should have used rip-rap, a method the railway considered and rejected because it would require excavation of the riverbed, which would cause further scouring to the bridge abutment.
The railway and state officials have tried to resolve the dispute but have been unable to do so, CPKC told the STB.
Maybe CPKC should just file a complaint against the WI DNR for practicing engineering without a license and/or outside their field of competence to WI engineering board. There is no way a competent licensed structural engineer would recommend a repair to scour under a pier seat with rip-rap, so it is obvious the WI DNR didn’t have one involved.
Perhaps Wisconsin doesn’t want/need interstate railroad service? Sooner or later, the industry is going to have to stop knuckling under to avaricious political and bureaucratic kleptocrats and stand-up to protect its legitimate rights. The only way to do that is to clear-cut ROW and all facilities from a state in such a way that rebuilding would be economically impossible.
Do not forget the interstate highway bridge collapse a few years ago in Minnesota (2007 on I-35W). Eleven people died without warning. This repair done in this case by private enterprise, was timely and done in a sound manner. Maybe states should look after their own bridges especially so.
Interesting issue. I am familiar with this bridge as I was Manager Structures for CP for this territory for 10 years. From the, admittedly minimal, info provided in the article it appears that CP followed best practices in their response to this emergency situation. The choices they had would have included rip rap as the DNR wished, but their main concern seems to have been the voids under and behind the abutment (rightly so). This triggered the grouting they performed.
According to the standard used for selecting the appropriate countermeasures to use (HEC-23), CP chose what appears an appropriate one. Their choice also did not cause any undue encroachment into the stream bed, which rip rap would have done.
This is also part of what we teach as part of AREMA’s Bridge Inspection and Scour seminar.
The key here is “emergency”. CP seems to have followed appropriate notification requirements to the state and then proceeded to do the work in a timely manner necessary to protect their structure, the traveling public and Interstate Commerce.
Wisconsin’s DNR is something of an odd duck. While staffed with many competent scientific experts doing excellent work, alongside is a high-handed bureaucracy.
This is just another example of bureaucrats justifying their jobs. Government has gotten too big and nobody wants to lose their job even if the method to keep their job is to inconvenience the public interests.
I just can’t believe the nonsense going on here. This bridge carries hazardous loads and Amtrak trains. For those of you not familiar with Milwaukee, this bridge is about 3 miles west of the depot. It is just north of the AmFam Field baseball stadium and the very critical and busy I-94 East-West freeway. This would be a very bad place to have a bridge failure and chemical release to the atmosphere. Moreover, it is in a valley and fumes could lay low to the ground and head for downtown.
CPKC knows what they are doing here and they did the right thing. Safety first and always. And what harm was done to the environment by doing the work as done instead of with rip-rap? No common sense anymore and we wonder why there is so much fighting in our society.
Let’s not forget the wonderful job the US EPA did of cleaning up old mines near the Animas River. So, now they want the railroad to rip out the repair work and redo it differently with permits in the in who knows how many years in the future. These environmental agencies are out of control and common sense. Reminds me of NS in NC doing the work to reinstall double track in former double track territory. They had to stop the work because they hadn’t gotten all the proper permits.
@James. This has nothing to do with the U.S.EPA. I t was the Wisconsin State DNR
Zero relevancy to this issue. Feds not involved and that issue in Silverton was not intentional. Your statement is about your political feelings, not the reality of the situation in Wisconsin. Unbelievable.
It is high time that the discussion in question led to an agreement.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
First, let’s recall the hypocritic oath for chairborne bureaucrats: “First, do nothing.” They could take that bridge out of service for years until enough reports are filed to act as a bridge pier themselves.
Wisconsin DNR needs congratulated for taking six years to notice.
Legally this may be a grey area. The feds regulate railroads but railroads still have to apply for some state permits, this being a case. Having said that, Wisconsin DNR might have technical jurisdiction but even so is just plain full of it. (Not exactly an unusual event for Wisconsin DNR.)
While I’m at it, Michael Lampman comment (below) is onto something. Wisconsin DNR knows nothing about bridges. Wisconsin DOT knows plenty about bridges. DOT and DNR work well together but in this instance DOT should have taken the lead.
There is precedence in law. Oregon Scenic Railroad was sued by the Oregon DNR and Oregon EPA for conducting repairs to their ROW due to a washout. Oregon said they did not do the mandatory environmental studies and get the required permits under Oregon law to perform the work.
The Federal Court ruled in favor of Oregon Scenic stating that railroad repairs were not under state jurisdiction, but Federal and that Oregon Scenic was not required to get a permit to maintain the working order or their ROW.
While CPKC did the right thing in notifying the local authorities and stated the urgency of the work, the state authority can do nothing to keep the railroad from performing maintenance on their ROW, in which this bridge qualifies.
Having personally seen how railroads sometimes repair bridges in seemingly “cheap” fashion at times, I understand the position of Wisconsin, but the laws are clear.
If Wisconsin wants it done a certain way, then they should pony up the cash to help CPKC replace the bridge the way they want it done. Until then have the Wisconsin Attorney General bone up on his federal laws regarding railroads.
Rip-Rap is used to armor a solid bank. It won’t make it solid if it is weakened.
One of these days, government red tape and “we know better than you do” is going to see a bridge collapse with catastrophic results, to the environment too caused by dilly dallying.
Let’s hope it doesn’t happen that way, of course.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün