IAIS – Inspection & Rating

The Iowa Interstate Railroad (IAIS) is a Regional Railroad that runs from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Chicago with a branch line to Peoria, Illinois. IAIS has an inventory of over 300 bridges along the mainline and several branch lines located on over 550 miles of track. To comply with the Federal Railroad Administration’s Code of Federal Regulations Part 237 (Bridge Safety Standards), IAIS selected Benesch to develop a Bridge Management Plan and complete all tasks related to the Plan, including inspections, ratings and inventory.

Benesch completed detailed inspections and strength ratings for all bridge spans operated on by IAIS. A wide variety of structure types were inspected, including steel truss and girder spans, concrete slab and box spans and timber stringer spans. All inspections were completed over approximately 13 weeks using several techniques to ensure the structures were inspected thoroughly.

The findings and measurements taken from these inspections were later used to determine strength ratings for each span. The strength ratings were presented at both Normal and Maximum rating levels and safe load capacities were specified for each bridge based on these ratings.