Amtrak Empire Connection outage due to parking garage issues

west point wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 12:59 pm Have to wonder about the quality of the concrete. 50-year-old concrete even exposed to salt?

Just to add more context, this is 50+ year old concrete exposed to rain, road salt, and whatever comes off the Hudson a year-on-year basis. Mix in some hurricanes and Superstorm Hurricane Sandy, and constant vehicular traffic (and engine exhaust)...

...You know, that sounds like a long-term research paper. I'm strangely interested in reading that...

Railjunkie wrote: ↑Sun Nov 19, 2023 2:22 am The fix is in, at least the temporary one anyway. Amtrak killed the Form D with the temporary speed through the area yesterday still not sure if both tracks are open yet. As of my trip Friday afternoon track one was still OOS. Perhaps Amtrak should take a look up and give a check just in case there are any more surprises in those couple of miles.

I would not be surprised if Amtrak was this "like white on rice." It's a big unplanned disruption (unlike the planned one back in 2018), and they do not want to go back to Metro-North to get slots for the Empire Services at the last minute.

This incident exemplifies why it can be a disastrous mistake for railroads to sell "air rights" above their tracks.

(although I realize that a building put up in 1975 long predated the Empire Connection)

That building is almost 50 years old now. The parking garage is probably poured concrete with rebar. But after half a century, even that can start to deteriorate. And how good was the concrete that went in the first place?

It's pretty simple -- If you want to be certain that nothing can come down ONTO your tracks, don't put anything OVER your tracks.

At least nothing which doesn't have to be there.

In Boston they had big problems with the Government Center Garage over the Green/Orange Lines Haymarket Station, the John B. Hynes Convention Center over the Framingham-Worcester Line approaches to Back Bay Station, ceilings and other stuff falling onto passengers in subway stations, and a fatal ceiling collapse on a brand-new I-90 tunnel because they used the wrong epoxy to hold up a 3000lb cement panel