US Freight Trains Are Getting Longer — Is That Safe?
Our roads were not deraigned for today’s traffic! The primary problem is the greed of the freight bosses to transport more freight with fewer employees (‘Under Staffing’)! The following quotes tell part of the proble.
Why are roads, bridges in such bad shape? Quite simply, they’re old. Most of the U.S. highway network was built during the Eisenhower administration. In Washington State, for example, 36% of bridges are over 50 years old.— Truckers contend with aging infrastructure, roads and bridges
ProPublica’s reporting suggests they should start by looking at federal regulators’ ponderous response to the mounting warnings about the dangers of long freight trains. Before that morning in Hyndman in August 2017, regulators had already investigated seven long-train accidents in which the length was a culprit, and the nation’s largest rail worker union had sounded alarms about a pattern of problems. None of this caused the Federal Railroad Administration, the agency in charge of train safety, to intercede — even as more long trains crashed in the years after the Hyndman derailment, sending cars spilling into other communities. Today, the rail administration says it lacks enough evidence that long trains pose a particular risk. But ProPublica discovered it is a quandary of the agency’s own making: It doesn’t require companies to provide certain basic information after accidents — notably, the length of the train — that would allow it to assess once and for all the extent of the danger. “It’s one of our biggest frustrations, without question,” said Jared Cassity, the alternate national legislative director for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, or SMART. The union representative said the agency can track train length for accidents “and they’ve chosen not to.” — The True Dangers of Long Trains
An off-quoted federal study once found that road damage from one 18-wheeler is equivalent to the impact of 9,600 cars. A fully loaded tractor-trailer weighs 80,000 pounds, 20 times more than a typical passenger car at 4,000 pounds, but the wear and tear caused by the truck is exponentially greater.An off-quoted federal study once found that road damage from one 18-wheeler is equivalent to the impact of 9,600 cars. A fully loaded tractor-trailer weighs 80,000 pounds, 20 times more than a typical passenger car at 4,000 pounds, but the wear and tear caused by the truck is exponentially greater. — How Trucks Destroy Our Roads
It was back in 2000 that Milwaukee’s Hoan Bridge collapsed when steel girders cracked. “Several factors were blamed for the collapse,” an Associated Press story noted, “including a significant number of heavy trucks, some over the normal weight limit, that routinely traveled over the bridge.” Seven years later came the famous collapse of Minnesota’s I-35W Bridge. Its destruction was blamed on a design failure, but also to the impact of trucks. The 1967 bridge “was built at a time when the bulk of the nation’s freight moved by rail and not by massive eighteen-wheeler trucks” writer Barry B. LePatner reported, and the heavier truck loads “represented a significant increase over the design load of the structure.” — How Trucks Destroy Our Roads
The Infastrcture of the United States is not what it use to be. The capitalist employers of the United States have a policy of Deferred maintenance (the practice of postponing maintenance activities such as repairs on both real property (i.e. infrastructure) and personal property (i.e. machinery) in order to save costs, meet budget funding levels, or realign available budget monies. The failure to perform needed repairs could lead to asset deterioration and ultimately asset impairment. Generally, a policy of continued deferred maintenance may result in higher costs, asset failure, and in some cases, health and safety implications.) since the 1970s. An another policy of ‘under staffing’.
These problems became very clear when the Biden government forcing rail workers to go back to work, becuse of the safety issue of railroads with less staff and and loner trains. Almost right after Biden’s action the long train carrying deadly chemicals derailed in East Palestine.
The answer to these, problems, is for safer road and rails! The costs, to repair the cumbling transportation infastruucture are very high. But, the yearly allotment to the war budget, dwarfs thse costs.
What is needed, is a society, which puts the nation’s safety as its citizens thenumber one priority! The United States is a nation where the military, is the primary budget item to defend globalpax americana!