FRA issues ballast repair safety advisory

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
image description

The Federal Railroad Administration issued a safety advisory to emphasize the importance of timely repairs of ballast defects and conditions on main tracks.

 

FRA notes that ballast defects and ballast conditions that are not repaired in a timely manner can lead to future defects. FRA believes it is important for track inspectors to be aware that ballast defects and conditions can cause track components to deteriorate rapidly and compromise the stability of the track structure and that inspectors are trained to identify and repair ballast defects and conditions.

This safety advisory recommends that track owners and railroads assess current engineering instructions on ballast safety and update them to provide specific guidance to track inspectors on how to identify and initiate remedial action for ballast defects and conditions, as well as on the appropriate remedial action to implement, particularly in areas with one or more additional track conditions; train track inspectors on the updated engineering instructions and this safety advisory to ensure they understand how to identify and initiate remedial action for ballast defects and conditions in a timely manner and understand the importance of such remedial action in preventing the development of unsafe combinations of track conditions and ensure that supervisors provide adequate oversight of track inspectors to achieve identification and remediation of ballast defects and other track conditions.

Ballast defects are often readily apparent through indications of poor geometry and structure degradation. FRA says that a location with a combination of a ballast defect with a marginal geometry condition warrants additional monitoring, more restrictive remedial action or both, to correct or safely compensate for the combined defect and condition.

FRA encourages the railroad industry to take appropriate action consistent with the recommendations and any other actions to ensure the safety of the nation’s railroad employees, passengers and the general public.

 

Tags: