Railroad bridge inspections no longer need to follow a federal schedule

The US Federal Railroad Administration proposes to eliminate a federal rule that dictates how track owners must schedule evaluations for bridges with unknown load capacities. This means railroad companies will now have more discretion to decide when and how to assess these bridges.

For nearly 15 years, railroad companies had to follow a specific federal timeline for inspecting bridges whose load limits were not known. This rule was meant to be temporary, to ensure all bridges were eventually assessed. Now, the federal government says that transitional period is over, and companies can set their own schedules. This shifts the responsibility for determining inspection frequency and method entirely to the track owners.