James Oberstar: “The collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis on August 1 while I was at this very microphone managing a…”

“The collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis on August 1 while I was at this very microphone managing a conference report on water resources amendments stunned the Nation, stunned this House. It startled my colleagues in the Minnesota delegation and our colleagues on the committee. But shortly after that, the Federal Railroad Administration and the GAO warned that many of the Nation's 76,000 railroad bridges may also be at risk. FRA on September 11 issued a rail safety advisory on railroad bridges, reporting that 52 accidents over the period 1982 to 1986 were caused by the catastrophic structural failure of railroad bridges. The most recent accident was the M&B Railroad near Myrtlewood, Alabama, where a train of solid-fuel rocket motors derailed when a timber trestle railroad bridge collapsed under that train. Several cars, one carrying a rocket motor, rolled onto their side. Six people were injured. Bridge failures do not account for the majority of train accidents, but FRA noted and updated their guidelines and reported that they have found instances 'where lack of adherence to the FRA's bridge safety policy resulted in trains operating over structural deficiencies in steel bridges that could easily have resulted in serious train accidents.'”