Trains halted from bridge collapse

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

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.

The collapse may stop freight trains from passing through, but a couple of major users of the railroad says it won't affect business.

Rail service is critical to the state port in Morehead City but the trestle collapse in James City hasn't caused any major problems, port officials said.

"Right now there is no railroad service in or out of the port," said Susan Clizbe, communications manager for the State Ports Authority. "The good news is nothing urgently needs to get out."

Clizbe said repairs to the trestle are supposed to be completed by the end of the week and the brief interruption in rail service shouldn't be a problem.

"If it was a longer time period it could be a problem, but they have said they expect it to be fixed by the end of the week," she said.

Havelock's largest private user of the railroad says it won't affect their business.

"It certainly won't stop us from production," said Neal Ganaway, plant manager at Ready Mixed Concrete Company of Havelock.

The company has a concrete plant on the tracks off Miller Boulevard. Ganaway said the company has a standing order for at least one rail car full of concrete for delivery at any given time. The railcars are detached from the train and left at the plant until they can be emptied.

"We do have other outlets to get material here. We often supplement with trucks," Ganaway said Tuesday. "The rail is not dependably on time. It's kind of unpredictable, so we have other ways to get the material."

A spokeswoman for Cherry Point said Tuesday morning that she was unaware of the collapse and could not comment on the possible effects of the bridge collapse on the base until she had more information.

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

Terpay said no trains will be passing until the bridge is rebuilt.

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 doesn't own property 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.