Nearly 140,000 miles of rail network and over 61,000 Class I bridges are manually inspected for defects and structural integrity in the United States, according to the Association of American Railroads.
With an extensive network of main tracks and sidings inspected weekly and bridges inspected yearly — or more often as determined by the Federal Railroad Administration’s track and bridge safety standards — railroads have been slowly adopting and testing drone technology to supplement their inspection efforts since around 2015 …
Progressive Railroading | April 9, 2019
