Western Railroad Discussion > Former MILW/ Weyerhaeuser Bridge damage. When is out of service?

Hello, 

     I drove under the one bridge in the small town of Rainier, WA and noticed two pilings on one side that looked like this. The tracks are used for storage now.
I was curious as if this likely renders the bridge out of service?  The pilings are rotting from the inside out where it looks like the creosote from 70 years ago never penetrated as deep.

The images are a little grainy from my smart phone; I later had to "push" the images due to bright winter sunshine that killed any contrast. 

Thank you.

Bermanator, Lacey, WA

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I think that pile was OK until something hit it and knocked it toward the interior piles.
Looks like a lot of sound wood but it was shattered as the steel pins from the cap tried to resist the lateral displacement.
The dark, crumbling wood exposed in the center is not unusual or a structural impairment, as long as it is localized.  (Impossible to tell without seeing it inperson)
A lot of wood in timber bridges and crossties only gets creosote into the first 1-2 inches because of the resistance of water in wood grain to intrusion by oil.  (...."like oil and water"..).
The Osmose company (does?) used to have a proprietary service of drilling into piles to assess their condition and if required, to inject epoxy into any voids that they found.
The best modern practice is to use a water solution with borate that will seep into the interior of the wood, followed by the creosote/oil treatment that attempts to seal the borate into the wood and fight off surface decay.

Agree it looks like a vehicle strike. I do see the O.P.'s point about being hollow though.

Taking 507 was a short cut of mine which lead to a few photos of the Chehalis Western GP38's. That road was also known for having a few Army tanks going across during training sessions. I would have thought it was still active with Tacoma Rail.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/17 13:01 by TCnR.

A lot depends on the condition of the other piles in the bent. Looks like 5 total? This is the outside batter pile (driven at an angle) that, as RTB noted, looks to have been hit. The primary load carrying work is done by the 3 interior piles. If they are sound and the line is used primarily for storage, things could be okay. It all comes down to the judgement of a qualified railroad bridge inspector looking at it in the field. 

I've been climbing creosote preserved telephone pole for over 30 years.
The creosote normally penetrates only about 1/2 to 1 inch into the wood.
You can get some rot at the top of the pile where it was trimmed if they don't put enough perservative on the cut.
And the damage on the pole in the picture looks to be from the sideways movement after something hit it.

The piling is clearly rotten inside. I don't think this was from a vehicle hit, but prehaps a inspector used a crow bar or similar to open up the piling to show how bad it is.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

I see that the diagonal brace in the foreground is split, the diagonal behind the pile (photo 2) is fractured, and the top of the pile appears to be directly under the stringer; not normal.  Also, a fragment of the pile top seems to have remained in its original position.  All these things point to a lateral impact of some sort.  Believe it or not, that pile could be repaired in place.
And what's up with that stringer arrangement? A little over-engineering?  I've typically seen 3 or 4 timbers ganged together in a stringer, but this setup looks continuous all the way across the span. It looks like there are at least 6 timbers in this stringer?

bad

It appears that they added a "helper" stringer, look at the span further from the camera and you will see the difference.
From the gouges in the bottom of the stringers, that bridge has taken a lot of abuse from vehicle that don't fit under it.

It seems that the short pile in the distance also has similar "splinter" on the same side, but how could it have been struck left-to-right?  Could the whole bridge have been struck right-to-left, so that those two piles are actually in their original location?