john Wrote:
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> The second Train News KUAL .com article shows
> photos of before and after of the Corvallis
> trestle fire. The before photo shows a plastic
> homeless tent under the trestle. The second photo
> shows two people with hard hats standing in about
> the same place. The damage to the stringers and
> caps looks pretty extensive.I don't think i would
> be out on a limb by saying whatever repairs were
> made were not enough. The entire through girder
> section collapsed. It was reported the bridge was
> inspected two months ago by company employed
> bridge inspectors.Third party bridge inspectors
> doing core samples of timbers and measuring the
> deflection as trains crossed might have come up
> with additional required repairs to make the
> bridge safe.

Post the link...?

It looked like the "burnt" approach wooden trestle section was what is holding that one car up. The main steel section is in the river. Despite all of the usual "well informed" media speculation about subjects like "engineering", it will be a very interesting accident report on what failed, and on how the history and pieces of this specific accident unfolded, to take out the main span.

Deferred maintenance/replacement issues and aging infrastructure failures, I should also note is a problem in all surface transport modes today. And that in many cases today, folks are driving across steel bridges, on many of our now aging freeways, that are not in much better shape, after 75 years of accumulated pigeon dung and the rust that creates.