Digest: UP bridge in Oregon damaged by fire

Union Pacific bridge sustains moderate damage, but remains in service after fire

A Union Pacific Railroad bridge in Springfield, Ore., suffered moderate damage in a fire early Monday morning, although the railroad is able to continue operations over the bridge at reduced speed. The Eugene Register-Guard reports firefighters from the Eugene Springfield Fire Department responded to the fire about 1:30 a.m. and took about 20 minutes to be controlled. Department Battalion Chief Mike Caven said accumulated grease added to the difficulty in controlling the blaze. “You have to realize it’s not just a wood fire but a petroleum-based fuel fire, which can really heat up,” Caven told the newspaper. “If that happened during the day, everybody would have seen it. It would have been a pretty fantastic plume of black smoke.” The cause of the fire is undetermined.

NICTD rejects bids for South Shore Double Track project, will seek to streamline requirements to lower cost

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District has rejected the two bids it received for construction of the South Shore Line Double Track project, and will attempt to attract new bids more in keeping with the agency’s estimates. The Times of Northwest Indiana reports General Manager Mike Noland said the NICTD will talk to the two bidders and others in the industry to see how it could lower the cost and “find out why some other firms did not participate and provide a bid.” The agency, which had estimated the cost of the construction of the second main line, along with replacement or upgrading of stations and bridges, at $228.6 million. It received bids of $399.7 million and $424.5 million last week [see  “Digest: South Shore Line Double Track construction bids are higher than expected,” Trains News Wire, May 5, 2021]. The NICTD will spend 30 to 45 days developing new bid requirements with the goal of receiving new bids by August.

MBTA looks at truck issues as cause of derailment as it keeps new CRRC cars sidelined

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will keep new subway cars out of service as it investigates an abnormality with the trucks in the new equipment. State House News Service reports the cars, built in Massachusetts by an affiliate of China’s CRRC, have been sidelined since a March 16 derailment. MBTA Deputy General Manager Jeff Gonneville said tests on the cars have found that as their mileage increases, it takes increasing force to turn the truck frames, and that investigators are looking at a component known as a side bearer pad, which regulates rotational force on the truck. Four six-car trainsets on the Orange Line and one on the Red Line, the first cars of a CRRC order that will eventually total 402, have been withheld from service since an Orange Line train derailed at the Wellington station in Medford, Mass. [See “Digest: MBTA sidelines new CRRC cars …,” Trains News Wire, March 17, 2021].  Gonneville said that will be the case until the agency is certain it has identified the cause of the problem and can safely return the cars to service.