the Goshen Valley Road Bridge northeast of Knoxville, was built in 1964, and scored a sufficiency rating of 6 out of 100 on its last inspection in March 2024 by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
After the inspection, TDOT added a weight limit which has prevented fire trucks and school buses from being able to use the route.
The Goshen Valley Volunteer Fire Department (GVVFD) released a memorandum on March 19 stating that, after learning this new information, they will no longer travel over the bridge because their equipment weighs over 10 tons.
“Any bridge in Hawkins County over 20 feet in length is inspected by the state every two to three years, and they tell you what to do to it,” said Highway Superintendent Danny Jones. “The last time TDOT inspected it, they dropped it to 10 tons and said to pray that two tractor-trailers following each other don’t hit their brakes on the bridge.”
A National Bridge Inventory and Appraisal Report for Tennessee recommended the bridge’s replacement and estimated the cost at $14,345,000 in 2021.
a recent crash involving a Saturn caused even more damage. “A little Saturn hit the bridge; it came straight across and knocked out a 20-foot section of the concrete, even the decking,” Jones said. “So that’s how rotten it is. I mean, it wasn’t that big of a hit, but it’s like powder.
There are approximately 623,000 bridges carrying cars and trucks in the U.S.
there are 70,000 railroad bridges and only six inspectors from the Federal Railroad Administration are responsible for oversight
The FRA’s Bridge and Structures team now has just three bridge specialists and three structural engineers who oversee the railroads’ self-inspections of 69,509 railroad bridges the FRA is aware of.
FRA data show 112 bridge-related railroad accidents dating back to 1976, or on average more than two incidents per year.
In March 2017, a Union Pacific freight train derailed near a bridge in Graettinger, Iowa. Fourteen tank cars released approximately 322,000 gallons of ethanol, sparking a fire and causing the evacuation of three homes.
The inspector general cited FRA data that showed “structural failures of railroad bridges caused 21 train accidents between 2007 and 2014.”
The NTSB faulted “Union Pacific Railroad’s inadequate track maintenance and inspection program and the FRA’s inadequate oversight of the application of federal track safety standards.”
Of seven accidents involving railroad bridges the NTSB did respond to since 2010 include multiple examples where companies deferred important maintenance before derailments.
Union Pacific acknowledged, when questioned by the NTSB, it knew many bridges still needed an inner guard rail, a second set of rails which can prevent a derailed train from crashing into a bridge
“The total number of bridges that require the inner guard rail is 635, and 218 do not have (the) inner guard rail installed,” Tomasz Gawronski, Director of Bridge Inspections for Union Pacific, said in his 2020 NTSB testimony.
Gawronski said money may have been a factor. “It’s a rather costly effort, you know, to install the inner guardrails.”
In 2020, Union Pacific reported operating revenues of $19.5 billion, with profits of $5.3 billion.
I have crossed that bridge in Tennessee and Western North Carolina when the floods from the Hurricanes went through a few years ago. Crossed the Tennessee Bridge in 64 when I enlisted in the Army. Crossed the Carolina bridges in early 70s after my discharge and many times . later as I had relatives still there. The iconic four-mile long Sunshine Skyway Bridge. On May 9, 1980, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida suffered a major collapse when the freighter MV Summit Venture collided with a support column. The collision caused a large section of the bridge to fall into Tampa Bay, resulting in the deaths of 35 people. On my only time to cross it my friend and I crossed it from the east heading west. As we topped it there was a steel open grate section allowing you to see the bay. All engine noise went out the bottom and my skinny front tire didn't like to track well in that open grating. Really a scary surprise that I never repeated again.
ReplyDeleteYou've got a good memory!
DeleteFrom your list, and description of the Tampa Bay bridge grating, I figure you've never been across the Mackinac Bridge, between lower and upper penninsulas of Michigan.
There sure as hell ain't any reason to for any reason unless you're heading up north to feed mosquitos, or hunt float copper, so I doubt you have ever crossed that bridge, and I can tell you, a LOT of people are freaked out when driving across the grates, even when they are in cars, trucks, etc.
Plus, cars have been blown off the bridge. Truth.