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Railway emphasizes safety ahead of hearings

KEITH KINNAIRD | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 7 years, 2 months AGO
by KEITH KINNAIRD
News Editor | May 11, 2018 1:00 AM

SANDPOINT — BNSF Railway Co. is emphasizing its commitment to safety as it chugs through the permitting phase for a second railroad bridge spanning Lake Pend Oreille.

The Sandpoint junction connector project aims to eliminate a bottleneck at BNSF’s 103-year-old span, where three busy rail lines converge into a single lane.

“You have this ripple effect of trains holding, blocking crossings,” BSNF spokeswoman Courtney Wallace said during a well-attended Greater of Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce meeting at DiLuna’s Café on Thursday.

Wallace said those holdups can ripple into eastern Washington and western Montana. Moreover, rail traffic will increase with the population increase in the Inland Northwest regardless of whether the new bridge is constructed.

“There’s a demand for goods and it has to get here, and trains are the most environmental and fuel efficient way to move anything on land. One of our double-stack trains can take 280 trucks off the road and that helps reduce emissions and wear and tear on public roads,” said Wallace.

The prospect of a new span across the lake has been welcomed as a boon to commerce and fewer blocked at-grade railroad crossings, which hold up motorists and emergency responses. But recent derailments on a Montana Rail Link line in Montana and on BNSF’s own line in Cocolalla have raised concerns over the rail accidents and the threat that hazardous materials pose to public health and water quality.

Some also oppose the new span because it facilitates the shipment of oil and coal, which exacerbates climate change whether here or abroad.

“It’s a lot more than coal and oil,” Wallace said of shipments coursing through BNSF 106 miles of track through the Panhandle. “That’s constantly what I think people hear about, just because there’s concern about climate change — legitimate conversations we all should be having.”

However, Wallace said 74 percent of the freight passing through Idaho consists of agricultural products and consumer goods.

“Yes, we move oil. A lot of what’s moving through the state of Idaho is going to refineries in Washington, so that crude oil is being refined to be used by planes, by cars and by the military,” said Wallace.

Wallace said shipments of coal, which is not regulated as a hazardous material, are on the decline due to market prices and demand.

Wallace said BNSF has invested $3.4 billion in 2018 alone to maintain and upgrade the company’s rail infrastructure. Wallace said the company is also exceeding federal requirements that tracks be inspected at least twice a week.

“At a minimum, BNSF is out there inspecting our track at least four days a week and sometimes on our busiest main lines — including the areas through Sandpoint — it’s inspected every day,” she said.

BNSF is also observing another federal mandate requiring Positive Train Control, an advanced system designed to automatically stop a train to avoid a collision or slow a train if its speed is excessive enough to cause a derailment.

“One of the best things we focus on is prevention in the first place,” Wallace said.

Other safety measures include wayside detectors that are tuned to identify the heat signature of an overheated wheel bearing or the sound signature of a microscopically cracked wheel, which alerts the crew to a problem so the train can be stopped and evaluated.

The railroad and public safety officials have also developed a Geographic Response Plan for Lake Pend Oreille and the Clark Fork River that serves as a blueprint for responding to a hazardous material spills caused by a derailment.

The Idaho Department of Lands is hosting two public hearings on the bridge proposal on Wednesday, May 23. There is an 8 a.m. hearing at the Ponderay Events Center and a 6 p.m. hearing at Sandpoint High School.

A group called Keep Sandpoint Rolling, meanwhile, is holding a meeting to galvanize support for the new span on May 23 at First Baptist Church in Sandpoint. That meeting starts at 5 p.m.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.

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