The fire burned for about nine hours, billowing smoke and scorching the wooden trestles of a nearly 75-year-o
ld railroad bridge that spans the Marys River in Corvallis, home to Oregon State University. Long after the flames died
out, Michelle Emmons, a local environmental advocate, could still smelt
l the noxious stench of charred creosote — a chemical preservative used to treat outdoor wooden structures.
The bridge is owned by Portland & Western Railroad, which says it made repairs after the 2022 fire. Emmons wanted more.
“It was most alarming to us to see that there were still rail cars that were going over the bridge,” said Emmons, who c
o-leads the Willamette Riverkeeper, a local environmental nonprofit. “
It was only going to be a matter of time before there could possibly be an accident.”
That time came nearly three years later on Jan. 4, 2025, when the Corvallis bridge collapsed beneath a freight train.
One rail car fell into the river while another car dangled from the bridge and was partially submerged in
water. water. Nearly 150,000 pounds of fertilizer spilled from the train into the river
— a waterway already the focus of local environmental concerns.
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Officials from Portland & Western Railroad declined to be interviewed but emailed a statement a
bout the company's actions after the fire. “Some rail, crossties and bridge caps needed to be replaced,” wrote compa
ny attendee Tom Ciuba. “It’s important to note that cosmetic appearance and the smell of creosote do not necessa
rily represents structural damage to rail bridges.”
An investigation by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University fo
und railroad bridge safety across the U.S. is hamstrung by minimal government oversight and limited transparency. This leaves rail companies largely in control of inspe
cting and maintaining their own bridges — allowing them to keep most details about problems out of sight from the public.
This system differs starkly from the approximately 623,000 bridges carrying cars and trucks in the U.S., which must be regularly inspected, with results made public.
Among the Howard Center's investigative findings:
Only six inspectors from the Federal Railroad Administration are responsible for oversight of safety for 70,000 railroad bridges.
Roughly 10% of U.S. railroads have not had their bridge management programs audited by the FRA, 15 years after the rule on Bridge Safety Standards went into effect.
Some larger railroads, owned by companies with billions of dollars in annual revenue, have neglected installation of critical but sometimes costly safety features.
Even government officials have difficulty getting information about railroad bridge inspections.
Portland & Western
Railroad declined to allow Howard Center reporters to view bridge management plans or inspection records for the Corvallis bridge.
“Bridge inspection reports are not something we typically release to the public, as they are very technical in nature and should only be analyzed by bridge engineers,” wrote Ciuba.
Railroad Bridge Accidents Across the U.S.
FRA data shows 112 bridge-related railroad accidents dating back to 1976, or on average more than two incidents per year.
Mike Rush, safety director for the Association of American Railroads, said in every bridge-related derailment investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the cause of the bridge collapse was something other than bridge structure.