Posted: Jul 6, 2012, 12:59 AM
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પટેલ. કે ન
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: chicagoland
Posts: 7,816
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister Uptempo
It appears as if the worst fears have been realized...
From the Sun-Times website--
More available at the link. |
They found another body. I do not know why your article states four cars derailed. It is clear from the video the number is more like the previously reported 27 cars. The updated article says 28 cars.
Quote:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/1360417...-collapse.html
Two bodies found under wreckage of train derailment, bridge collapse
BY KATE SCHOTT, TODD SHIELDS AND TINA SFONDELES Sun-Times Media July 5, 2012 11:52AM
Updated: July 5, 2012 7:26PM
The morning started with a daunting task for cleanup crews -- clear away the mass of train cars, coal, steel and concrete that had rained down onto Shermer Road in Northbrook after a derailment and bridge collapse the afternoon before.
Officials already knew the accident would have long-lasting aftereffects: A new bridge would have to be built, and it could take months, causing headaches for motorists and the railroad alike.
But about 10 a.m. Thursday the cleanup crews’ work took a dark turn. Their efforts to clear the debris revealed a car that had been buried beneath the rubble.
Within a few hours authorities would learn that the mishap they thought had miraculously spared lives actually had claimed two.
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Deputy Glenview Village Manager Don Owen said officials do not believe anyone else is underneath the wreckage. The area where the original wreckage fell in the bridge collapse had been cleared and they stopped looking for victims Thursday evening, Owen said.
Railroad officials said the train derailed before the viaduct collapsed.
“The engineers and car crew said the bridge was intact when the train went over. It all seemed fine to them,” Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said.
Spokesman Thomas Lange said bridge was designed to carry a certain number of coal cars weighing 75 tons to 85 tons each over the 86-foot expanse of the bridge, but it could not handle a pileup of 28, which was many times the number it was expected to hold, Lange said.
The intense heat Wednesday could have made the steel rails expand, causing the derailment and then the bridge to collapse, Lange said.
The investigation into what happened will take months,
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These inspections are done twice a day as a matter of routine during both extremely hot and cold temperatures, he added.
“The speed was lowered from 50 miles per hour to 40 miles per hours because of the heat, but the train was not even going that fast. A recorder registered it at 37 miles per hour when it derailed,” Lange said.
Ian Savage, transportation economist and railroad safety expert at Northwestern University, said the bridge would in no way be able to support the number of train cars that piled up on it after the derailment.
“If you have a bridge which is about 40 feet long ... there is a maximum load which you can have on top of the bridge, which is 40 feet worth of heavy train cars,” Savage said. “But you can’t have all these cars piled on top of each other on top of the bridge. Instead of having 40 feet worth of it you have 30 cars all lined up on top of each other, which far exceeds the limits for the bridge and the design specs of the bridge.”
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“We’ll look at all the factors, including the heat’s impact on the bridge’s structure,” he said. Wednesday’s high temperature was 102 degrees.
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He called the collapse of a railroad bridge like Wednesday’s, “rare, very rare indeed.”
Once the debris is cleared, Union Pacific will use stone fill to close the gap the bridge left when it collapsed and will install temporary tracks there so trains will get through the area, Lange said
But the new bridge will have to be designed, then built, which will take some time, he said.
The railroad overpass just underwent repairs last year. Work started June 27, 2011, and officials initially expected it to be closed for two months.
At that time, Jerry Burke, the director of the Glenview Public Works Department, described the work as general maintenance. Crews were installing new braces and repainting the sides of the viaduct, he said then.
In September 2011, officials announced the project was taking longer than expected. The bridge structure required more extensive repairs than originally anticipated, a Union Pacific spokesman said in September. The road reopened the first week of October.
David Valentine, of Northbrook, said he saw the accident happen...
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