Only two days after a major train derailment occurred next to it, traffic is again flowing along a section of Riverside Drive in Steel City that was closed due to the accident.
Lower Saucon Township Police announced the road’s reopening Monday around 3 p.m.
Steel City Park was where local, county and state officials gathered to provide updates on the derailment Saturday. Emergency vehicles from throughout the area can be seen in the background, surrounding the Steel City fire station.
The train derailment happened shortly after 7 a.m. Saturday, when three Norfolk Southern trains collided on the tracks that run parallel to the Lehigh River.
Although the exact series of events that caused the trains to collide remains unclear, the end result was that at least eight cars derailed, including two locomotives which went over an embankment.
One of the locomotives ended up partially submerged in the water and was removed by a large crane on Sunday. Track work was also completed by Norfolk Southern so the rail lines could reopen.
There were no injuries reported as a result of the derailment, and although some diesel fuel spilled into the Lehigh River local officials expressed relief that the accident didn’t cause more damage.
Residents of the Steel City section of Lower Saucon Township have long expressed concerns about the proximity of the rail lines to their homes, as well as hazardous materials being transported.
Fortunately, here was no release of hazardous materials as a result of the accident, and no evacuations of the area were needed.
Riverside Drive is the only road in and out of Steel City–the township’s most densley populated neighborhood–and the lack of potential escape routes in the event of an emergency has also been previously raised as a concern.
Many unanswered questions about what caused the derailment remain, and according to the National Transportation Safety Board, it could take up to two years for a final report on it to be issued.
NTSB investigators remained on scene Monday, after arriving at the site of the accident late Saturday.
The investigation team has begun reviewing “data from the locomotive event recorders and downloaded data from the wayside signals,” according to an NTSB statement issued Sunday.
“They also obtained downloads from the inward and outward facing image recorders on all three trains to send back to NTSB headquarters in Washington D.C. for further analysis,” an NTSB spokesperson said. “The team also mechanically examined the derailed cars and other train equipment.”
As part of the investigation, interviews are being conducted with crew members, with another update in the form of a preliminary accident report expected in approximately three weeks.
First responders can be seen working next to a locomotive that derailed into the Lehigh River at Steel City in Lower Saucon Township Saturday morning. A trailhead on the opposite bank in Bethlehem Township provided curious onlookers with a clear view of both the accident scene and cleanup efforts over the weekend. A portion of the guide rail that runs along Riverside Drive–which reopened Monday–can be seen in the background.
