ON TRACK
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D.C. Metro is not being a good hostess
W
hen Sno-Balls did not have a chance, it was my own personal hell. Not too long ago, Hostess snack cakes stopped serving. Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and yes my ultimate favorite, Sno-Balls, were all removed from the store shelves. The company was done for, the assembly line was frozen in place, and there was not anything an east or west coast pastry could do to win over my junk food appetite. Now I am not one to order sugary snacks by the bulk and stuff them under my bed. It has not gone that far, but I do consider myself to be a fan of the creamy center ... a little too much for my age. There has to be something like a junk food anonymous group to keep me from gulping an entire Sno-Ball, but do I really need a 12-step program? Perhaps a 12-step dental plan is in order, or even a way I can get 12 steps in repeatedly on a stair master (even if my weight is proportionate to my height). These are life decisions. The Washington, D.C., Metro has been encouraged to follow a 12-step program, and it’s for something much more serious than a bad relationship with Twinkie the Kid. No, we are talking bridge safety, and what was unveiled a few weeks ago is tough to swallow. A recent audit by the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission has revealed that Metro does not know exactly how much weight its elevated structures can carry and that the agency also needs to make sure inspectors have proper training and credentials. The Commission has recommended 12 steps to improve safety on 148 bridges. Safety Commission spokesman Max Smith said basic load ratings on D.C. Metro structures are missing or not known, making it impossible to know if trains can safely travel on the bridges. Excuse me? You mean to tell me there is
nobody at D.C. Metro who has such vital information written down or stored somewhere? No one has general numbers in the back of their head? There is not an intense fear filling the hallways of the Metro offices? This is absolutely deplorable, but just when you think the report could not unveil anything else that could make you choke on a Ho-Ho, it also says inspectors need to be trained better and need to have better tools available to them. So even if an inspector has an idea of what he or she is looking at while canvassing a bridge, they may not have the right tools to address the problem? Excuse the abundant questions, which is the last thing you want to see come out of an audit about bridge safety. The report also is recommending that supervisors spend more time out in the field with the inspectors, and there needs to be more oversight of contracted inspectors to make sure they have the necessary credentials, training and qualifications to handle the jobs that are assigned to them. D.C. Metro spans are sitting time bombs. Nobody appears to know where each one of these explosive risks are located, and if they do there may be no knowledge on how to diffuse them. Does D.C. Metro even have a department devoted to bridges? If it does, it’s by name only. There is an entire staff responsible for the safe transport of thousands of riders a day that needs to be educated on the daily facets of the job. While they are being brought up to speed, a transit bridge can drop at any moment. This could snowball quickly.
BILL WILSON Editor-in-Chief
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March 2021 // Railway Track & Structures 3
