Railroad bridge collapses over Scotts Creek in James City

The collapse of a 100-foot steel railroad bridge over Scotts Creek in James City will stop trains for a week through New Bern to Cherry Point, Camp Lejeune, and the Morehead City Port.

The bridge fell Sunday morning just after a Norfolk-Southern locomotive pulling 13 freight cars passed over it, said Susan Terpay of the Norfolk-Southern Railroad office in Norfolk, Va. No one was hurt.

A railroad employee saw the collapse shortly after 10 a.m. and immediately notified company officials, she said. There was no additional rail traffic and no further damage.

The bridge built in the 1980s on steel pilings. It is used to move about 10 trains a week, five one way, five the other.

"Tomorrow we are going to begin replacing the bridge and expect to have it back in service in about a week," Terpay said. "No trains will be passing until we rebuild that bridge."

A train that passed over the Trent River about 6 p.m. Monday was taking repair supplies to the site, she said.

No other traffic has passed on area tracks owned by the North Carolina Railroad since the bridge fell. The train that crossed Sunday morning before the collapse was pulling 11 cars filled with phosphate rock, one carrying lumber, and one empty car.

Terpay said the collapse cannot be directly attributed to the last train over.

Norfolk-Southern Railroad owns property in Craven County valued at $6.8 million, but none in Township 7 where the Scotts Creek Bridge is located, said Ronnie Antry, Craven County tax administrator.

The N.C. Railroad owns that, along with a 317-mile, 200-foot wide corridor from the Port at Morehead City to Charlotte, said Kat Christian, N.C. Railroad public affairs director.

"The railway is leased to Norfolk Southern Railroad for freight and Amtrak for passenger rail and is a great asset for the state," Christian said.

She said the N.C. Railroad had been advised that repairs would be completed on Friday.

Apparently no local emergency or inspections officials were advised of the collapse.