A staggering number of the 89 city bridges and crossings used by Amtrak trains have parts that are in crumbling condition, The Post has learned.
At least 46 percent of the spans — some crossing over waterways like the Bronx River or such thoroughfares as Dyckman Street — have important components rated in “poor” or worse condition, inspection reports show.
And the grades don’t fare much better for bridges around the state. About 44 percent have poor or worse ratings, with some in Albany having completely ineffective waterproofing and drainage.
Amtrak-maintained bridges in the city with parts that rate “4” or higher — on a scale of 1, which is excellent condition, to 6, which is failed — include routes like the Northeast Corridor and the Empire lines, both of which use Penn Station.
One span that crosses from 135th to 125th Street along Manhattan’s West Side received consistent “serious” rankings for beams and other metal supports, along with several “poor” floor problems, the reports show.
Paint and concrete chips have been falling off the bridge, to the point where one inspector said in a March 2008 inspection report that it needed to be “netted off.”
And a 103-foot concrete arch bridge over 31st Street in Astoria, Queens, has plants growing though its northeast wall. It was given “poor” and “serious” rankings for drainage, waterproofing, and floor condition.
The inspector noted there was “heavy traffic” under the bridge.
Two smaller concrete spans in the Port Morris section of The Bronx — crossing 133rd and 134th Streets — received the worst grades, with 61 categories rated “poor” and two rated “serious” out of 67 categories overall.
The inspector’s notes for those facilities include vertical cracks on the bridge’s pressure points and large amounts of vegetation and trash on the bridge.
Almost all of the city’s spans have to endure heavy traffic.
Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor line, the most heavily traveled rail route in the nation, runs 2,600 trains each day in the areas between Washington and Boston. Each nine-car train weighs about 571 tons.
Amtrak officials insist that the poor annual inspection grades don’t necessarily mean a bridge is unsafe.
“Just rusty metal corroded away and jagged edges and holes isn’t necessarily an alarming thing,” said Jim Richter, the Deputy Chief Engineer of Structures. “Those bridges, many have looked like that for 30 years, and it’s not an alarming thing.”
He added that many of the bridges in the region were more than 100 years old.
“They’re going to have various stages and components of deterioration — none of this stuff happens overnight,” Richter said. “We would never allow any train to operate over a bridge that’s not reliable.”
He also pointed out that a mere $40 million of the $1.4 billion in federal funds that Amtrak gets every year is dedicated to bridge and span repairs, which isn’t enough for the most ideal repair work.
“I would like to paint every bridge,” Richter said. “Is $40 million enough to paint every bridge? No, it’s not.”