The Burlington Northern Santa Fe train that derailed west of Ottawa a few weeks ago, is still in the process of being cleaned up. Thirty one cars of the train, all carrying corn, came off the tracks just west of the Louisiana Terrace crossing. An inspection of the sight last weekend by, yours truly, found that all 31 cars still remained on site, many with fermenting corn still in them, and piles of corn on the ground. The mangled grain cars had been pushed to the side of the tracks the day of the incident to make room for construction equipment to rebuild nearly 1500 feet of track and track bed that had been destroyed in the derailment.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe media spokesperson, Kendal Sloan, says recovery work continues on the north side of the tracks. They are meeting with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, and she says they are pleased with the progress. Sloan says completion for north side is expected as early as today, August 16th and the south side work will begin next week with estimated completion sometime next month. She says environmental challenges and access limitations have slowed recovery efforts, specifically on the south side. A conversation with a property owner that borders the crash site confirms that cranes have been lifting the rail cars onto flatbed trucks and moving them out of the area. Sloan says the cause of the accident is still under investigation.
