When time and a rain-swelled Arkansas River ganged up and brought down a sizable section of an old steel railroad bridge just southeast of Oxford last month, there was plenty of the usual oohing, aahing and gawking.
But the wow factor faded fast and gave way to a simple question: Who’s going to clean this up?
Betty Oliver, Oxford’s city clerk, says she would have started working on getting the mess out of the way by now if it were up to her – but it’s not. The bridge, built in 1879, is outside Oxford’s city limits and is not property of the city or Sumner County.
It’s a rail line abandoned in 1997 by the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad, according to city records.
The company pulled up the ties and rails long ago.
Oliver thinks it would be simple to put the clean up job up for bids from metal and steel salvage companies. The work could be done in the winter when the water level of the Arkansas River falls and the flow of water slows making the tons of metal framing easier to access.
"I think with the price of scrap metal, selling the scrap would easily pay for clean up," she says.
City officials contacted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hoping to spark clean up efforts. A Corps official told NewsCow that the agency mostly has jurisdiction over lakes and would probably not take part in a clean up project unless it was led by another agency.
County road and bridge crews won’t get involved either, says Melvin Matlock, Road and Bridge director for Sumner County. State statute says revenue generated from taxpayers can only be used to maintain roads and bridges owned by the county.
The railroad bridge does not meet that criteria.
Matlock heard parts of the bridge had crumbled into the river during September flooding on the Arkansas but his department has yet to receive any calls or complaints. County officials have not been out to assess the bridge.
Even though the railroad company abandoned the tracks, he says, the company should have responsibilities for maintaining or demolishing the bridge.
"Now, it may take a lawsuit and a judge to get that done," Matlock says. "You might have to have someone rule on a clean up project and enforce it."
The county will not have any oversight of the project but Matlock has had experience dealing with South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad. He says the company has not always been quick to do maintenance or repair work.
Cowley County officials had a similar experience when asking railroad officials to help fund repair work at a local crossing. The county’s attorney was involved in reaching an agreement to get the project completed.
Repeated calls to Pittsburg-based Watco Companies – parent of the railroad company – were not returned.
Oliver hopes something happens soon before tree limbs and branches start piling up and creating an unplanned dam in the river. It seems obvious to her that the bridge needed some sort of attention long before the river came up because the flooding this time around was less than in the past and not nearly as severe as flooding along the Walnut River.
She says the federal government has taken steps to protect and improve the river, so the disinterest in this clean up project confuses her.
"You’d think someone would want to make sure this gets taken care of," she says. "We’ll just have to see what happens."
(PHOTO CAPTION: The partially fallen railroad bridge southeast of Oxford is easily visible to motorists crossing the U.S. 160 bridge on the town’s east end.)
