More than 330 railroad bridges pass over freeways, highways and streets in Minnesota, and last year state and local inspectors determined that one in five of those was structurally deficient.
Inspectors found cracked concrete columns and steel anchor plates; rusting girders and bolts; and holes that let debris fall through bridge decks. Those and other problems led inspectors to declare 71 bridges in "poor" condition, a rating considered the equivalent of structural deficiency. Twelve suffered from what inspectors considered "serious" problems, a more grave rating.
Although precise comparisons to road bridges are difficult to make, the condition of rail bridges appears worse than that of road bridges. Just over 10 percent of Minnesota's highway bridges are considered in poor condition, although the inspection process is somewhat different.
But the overall condition of the state's railroad bridges is difficult to determine. There are more than 1,300 of them in Minnesota, but only those crossing over roadways are subject to inspection by state, county or city officials. And the railroads' own inspections are not a matter of public record.
An MPR News examination of public railroad bridge inspection reports found that in many cases, local and state inspectors have complained for years about deteriorating railroad bridges without action from the railroads. In most cases, inspectors could not examine the decks of railroad bridges because railroads refused inspectors access.
