Is your commute safe? NJ Transit won't share state of bridges, some older than 100 years

Tens of thousands of NJ Transit commuters cross them on trains every day. But the statewide public transportation agency, which maintains hundreds of rail bridges, won't share any information with the public that would reveal whether they're safe or not.

That's in contrast with roadway bridges, which have publicly available information about their condition. Railroad bridges are typically among the nation's oldest infrastructure, many built more than a century ago.

In October, The Record and NorthJersey.com submitted an Open Public Records Act request to NJ Transit for the agency's most current rail bridge inspection reports. A month later, the agency refused to provide even redacted copies of the documents, citing security concerns.

"NJ Transit is in possession of documents containing information which, if disclosed, would jeopardize the safety and security of NJ Transit bridges," the denial letter said.

That denial of records took place under the administration of former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican. When The Record attempted again in February to obtain copies of NJ Transit bridge inspection reports, this time under Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, the answer was the same.

After The Record submitted a Denial of Records Complaint to the Government Records Council in March, the state Attorney General's Office produced a 50-page document defending the agency's decision and urging the council to uphold it. The name of Murphy's attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, a former Bergen County prosecutor, appears at the bottom of the April 11 document.

The records, the Attorney General's Office asserts, "contain sensitive technical and narrative information regarding the structural integrity of nearly six hundred bridges" maintained by the agency.

The document also claims NJ Transit had been advised by the federal Department of Homeland Security that "release of bridge inspection reports would result in the release of information that could be used to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in NJ Transit's bridges."

The example NJ Transit cites? The 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, which killed 13 people and injured 145.

But the bridge's failure was unrelated to terrorism. The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the collapse to a construction flaw.

Barry LePatner, a New York attorney who wrote a book about deteriorating highway bridges called "Too Big to Fall," said that if the condition of public road infrastructure is available to the public, the condition of public rail bridges should be, too.

"It’s no different just because there’s a train running over it," LePatner said. "Nobody should put a different label on something the public uses."

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LePatner said he has received little pushback for his efforts to create a public inventory of 8,000 of the country's worst highway bridges. He's published the locations and details about them on a website. He called the security argument "ludicrous."

"You want to argue that this would give opportunities to do damage on a structurally weak bridge? That information is all over the public domain," he said. "Everybody can use it."

Phil Murphy campaign pledge

In 2016, then-candidate Murphy pledged a more open government, specifically citing the obfuscation of NJ Transit's finances under the Christie administration.

"It is unacceptable that NJ Transit would use questionable tactics to decrease transparency and increase bureaucratic opaqueness," Murphy said in a November 2016 press release.

Last December, after he won, Murphy called NJ Transit a "national disgrace" and vowed to rebuild the agency, which had struggled to recruit and retain qualified personnel, experienced serious safety lapses and become a patronage haven for allies of Christie.

In January, Murphy did fulfill his campaign promise to conduct a full, independent audit of the agency's finances, personnel practices and safety compliance. The results of the audit are expected to be made public in the next several weeks.

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However, the Murphy administration's stance on NJ Transit bridge inspection reports echoes the position of his predecessor.

NJ Transit referred questions about The Record's denied OPRA request to the Attorney General's Office. The office declined to comment.

NJ Transit bus commuters can know the condition of the highway bridges they cross every day. The Federal Highway Administration maintains an extensive database of the condition of bridges across the country.

The Federal Railroad Administration, though, collects no such data. The agency leaves it up to individual railroads, including NJ Transit, to perform bridge inspections and record their condition.

Security cited

For the most part, railroads are unwilling to share detailed information about the condition of their bridges with the public, even when those bridges cross public highways, public spaces and vital waterways.

They cite security as a rationale for not sharing information about their bridges.

It's similar to the argument freight railroads have invoked to conceal data about large shipments of flammable liquids by rail.

Several high-profile oil train derailments in the past decade intensified calls for railroads to be more transparent with state and local officials about just how much hazardous material was moving through communities along the track.

Much like the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the oil-train derailments were caused by safety lapses, not terrorism. But that didn't stop railroads from asserting that release of information about them would aid those seeking to do harm to rail infrastructure.

Some states, like New Jersey and Delaware, sided with the railroads. Others, like New York, did not and released the information when news organizations requested it.

Pennsylvania produced oil-train records after news organizations challenged the state's initial denial of their requests. Maryland did so after a judge dismissed two railroads' effort to block a state agency from releasing the data to news organizations.

Additionally, public agencies such as Amtrak and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority proved willing to provide the information Pennsylvania and Delaware were reluctant to release, and in some cases, even more detailed reports.

Under review

The Record has asked the Government Records Council to conduct a detailed review of NJ Transit's bridge inspection reports, similar to what took place in Pennsylvania and Maryland with the oil train documents.

An attorney who advises The Record on OPRA matters said it could take as long as two years for the council to issue a decision.

The lack of transparency about the condition of NJ Transit's bridges has been a concern to Garfield resident Mike Denistran for months. The 72-year-old retired service mechanic for Siemens called NJ Transit in July to report the deteriorating condition of a railroad bridge adjacent to the NJ Transit station near his residence.

"They said they’re going to put a paint job on it, but that’s not going to do it," he said.

The 119-year-old bridge is on NJ Transit's Bergen County Line and crosses Passaic Street. The bridge's overhead clearance is only 11 feet, and it has been struck numerous times by over-height trucks. The street below floods frequently, and some of the bridge's support beams appear to have rusted through.

"There's a drainage problem there," Denistran said.

The abutments supporting either side of the bridge have stones that are loose or cracked.

The documents NJ Transit has refused to provide, including 73 pages of information about bridges on the Bergen County Line, would reveal more about the condition of the structure in Garfield.

Denistran said the agency has done little to address his concerns about the bridge.

"It’s been neglected for years," he said. "You’re putting a lot of people at risk."

See Something, Say Something: Concerned about an NJ Transit bridge on your commute? Let us know: tatec@northjersey.com

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