BALTIMORE — The driver of an SUV was injured when the vehicle was hit by falling concrete from an Amtrak bridge today (Sunday, Dec. 8), WBAL-TV reports.
First responders were called about 11:28 a.m. about the incident that saw debris fall from a bridge over North Point Road. Police said the driver — the only person in the vehicle — suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Fire officials said the bridge was being assessed for structural integrity.
Amtrak initially announced that trains would incur delays of more than an hour on the segment of the Northeast Corridor between Wilmington, Del., and BWI Airport, but by 4 p.m. ET said the incident had been cleared and service had resumed, although there would be residual delays. Those delays proved to be sufficient that at least one late-night Northeast Regional train was cancelled between Baltimore and New York.
The Baltimore Banner reports the bridge in question dates to 1927, and that Amtrak said in a statement that the bridge is “structurally sound.” On Monday, two of the four traffic lanes passing under the bridge remained closed.
— Updated Dec. 9 at 7:15 a.m. CT with Sunday night train cancellation; updated at 8:20 p.m. with additional details.
Should have been thinking, “Watch for Falling Rock” I guess… Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Just glad he wasn’t seriously hurt…
This is a problem elsewhere. I know the City of Cleveland has taken issue with the condition of many rail bridges. Though they are safe for trains to use, pieces of concrete are coming off and rebar exposed. Don’t know what the current status is of what actions Cleveland was taking.
I think there is a dispute going on with the railroads and the authority to inspect bridges.
Typically bridges have been a local/state highway jurisdiction, but some railroads believe that the authority resides solely with them because the bridges are considered “private” in nature and only the FRA can impose standards.
Either way, with a large inventory of rail bridges reaching the century mark, the hedge funds are going to have to loosen their grip a little so they can allocate the capital to bridge replacements.
It appears these bridges were built by the Pennsylvania in 1927. There are 2 bridge sets, one for the electric and the other for freight. As per the style of the time, the Pennsylvania put a concrete finishing around not only the structural steel holding up the span, but also around the poured formwork for the supports.
Looking at GSV, both of these show lots of cracked, rebar exposed decline on the sides and underneath. The walls up at the train level look in great shape considering they might be 98 years old.