METUCHEN — Falling concrete from the bridge that takes Bridge Street over railroad tracks prompted officials from the state Department of Transportation (DOT) and Amtrak to conduct emergency repairs there on Nov. 4.
The two-lane crossing spans a set of Amtrak owned railroad tracks on Bridge Street, which connects Route 27 and New Durham Road.
“DOT came out, because evidently pieces of concrete were falling off the bridge,” Mayor Thomas Vahalla said. “They sent a crew out immediately to remedy it.”
Amtrak spokesman Craig Schulz said a track inspector from the company found pieces of concrete from the structure along the adjacent right of way.
“There was some spalling, where the concrete on the bridge was coming loose,” he said, adding that time and inclement weather can erode the concrete.
The bridge was closed from 9 p.m. that night until 5 a.m. the next morning, and a “slow order” was placed on trains passing below while a contractor worked to remove and replace loose material.
Schulz said the concrete surrounds the steel structure of the bridge, which is what provides support for the crossing.
In May, the DOT repaved the bridge, which had been considered a treacherous stretch because of its pothole-ridden surface.
The state has deemed the structure an orphan bridge because no public entity or rail company claims ownership of the passage, which traverses the Northeast Corridor train tracks. That places the responsibility to inspect and repair the bridge in the hands of the DOT, which has a unit of workers dedicated to caring for orphan bridges.