Freight train derailment caused ‘extensive damage’ to T tracks
Port Authority engineers found what officials feared Thursday when they were able to inspect the track on the light-rail system at Station Square: “extensive damage” to about 1,600 feet of track, some rails lifted out of place and some mangled to look like pretzels as a result of debris and cleanup efforts from Sunday’s derailment of seven Norfolk Southern cars on railroad tracks above the authority’s tracks.
Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph said the agency expects it will have to replace about 1,600 feet of light-rail track and about 4,000 feet of overhead electrical wires used to power the system. Structural engineers are still reviewing the approach to the Panhandle Bridge, where falling rail cars damaged the concrete.
The agency hopes to have a timetable by Monday for reopening the Station Square line and will continue to divert light-rail
vehicles on its Allentown line until repairs are finished.
Thursday was the first full day the authority could examine its facilities after the derailment, which involved 14 double-stacked trailers. Some of those trailers fell onto the Port Authority tracks directly, others spilled tons of their cargo on the tracks. Cleanup crews staged heavy equipment on authority property during the derailment cleanup.
“The extent of the track damage really doesn’t matter because if it’s damaged a little bit or a lot, we have to replace it just the same,” Mr. Brandolph said.
The authority has ordered new fabricated steel supports for the electrical cables, Mr. Brandolph said. The station didn’t appear to receive any damage, he said.
The railroad was able to reopen its lines within three days,but Port Authority work is expected to take much longer because it has electrical damage, and tracks and the Panhandle ramp took the full weightof falling debris.
Right now, the authority isn’t sure how much work will be done by its crews and how much will be done by outside contractors, Mr. Brandolph said.
Maintenance workers already are rehabilitating about 3 miles of the Blue Line Library, where heavy rain and flash flooding on June 20 washed away ballast and damaged retaining walls at many points along the tracks. If workers are diverted to help with the South Side work, that could delay the scheduled Sept. 1 reopening of the Blue Line.
Meanwhile, Norfolk Southernhas dismantled and removed the 450-ton crane it had on site and expected to finish cutting damaged rail car and trailers into scrap metal Thursday evening in a StationSquare parking lot.
The Smithfield Street Bridge and East and West Carson streets have reopened, but the outbound lane on East Carson nearest the T station remains closed so Port Authority crews can get access to light-rail tracks.