Union Pacific completes spike replacement in Columbia River Gorge

Written by Kyra Senese, Managing Editor
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A diagram by Union Pacific shows how broken lag bolts can cause gauge widening, which led to a derailment near Mosier, Ore., this summer.
Union Pacific

Union Pacific (UP) has announced the completion of its rail fastening system replacement throughout the curved track in the Columbia River Gorge, which saw the June 2016 UP derailment involving 16 tank cars near the town of Mosier, Ore.

 

The curved track that stretches eight miles is now secured by a fastening system using spikes rather than lag bolts, which the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) said caused gauge widening along the tracks and led to the derailment in its preliminary report on the incident.

UP says its use of spikes instead of lag bolts is expected to improve the detectability of defects during future inspections, whereas defects in lag bolts were more difficult to identify. The FRA also noted in its June report that broken and sheared lag bolts can be troublesome to locate by high-rail inspections, but are critically important to resolve quickly.

“We have a clear focus—to safely operate our trains and protect our communities,” said Wes Lujan, UP’s vice president of public affairs for the railroad’s western region. “The fastening system replacement reinforces our commitment to rail safety in the Gorge as we strive to improve upon our 99.98 percent hazardous materials safety record and achieve our goal of zero incidents.”

The railroad says it has implemented significant safety improvements to decrease the network’s derailments by 35 percent from 2000 to 2015 and that it lowered derailments in Oregon by 58 percent between 2000 and 2015. 

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