Bridges Restored and Upcoming Weather Forecast

Announcement Number: CN2023-7
Categories: General Announcements
Posted Date: January 30, 2023

To Our Customers,

Union Pacific is committed to the safety of our crews, our customers, and the communities we serve. That commitment translates into frequent safety inspections of our infrastructure, both routine and incremental post-weather incidents. You will recall from our recent announcements that the La Honda Canyon bridge foundation experienced a washout in mid-January from flooding in Northern California and a bridge in Santa Rosa, New Mexico was taken out of service on January 24, 2023, after a routine safety inspection. We are pleased to report that our Engineering Team worked safely and in coordination with our Transportation Team to restore both bridge locations to service.

Following is a more detailed update on our recent bridge restorations:

  • The bridge repairs at Santa Rosa, New Mexico, were complete as of Friday, January 27, 2023. Customers with rail shipments moving between Dalhart and El Paso, Texas may experience delays for the next 24-48 hours as we work off the backlog of rail shipments. We are working diligently to normalize traffic flows through this territory.
  • The La Honda Canyon bridge repairs between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, California were completed on Saturday, January 28, 2023. The corresponding embargo #UP003823 has been lifted.

Monitoring Winter Weather Systems
Looking forward to this week, much of our northern region from Idaho and Wyoming through the Midwest across Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, will experience sub-zero temperatures. Blowing snow across Wyoming this past weekend forced highway closures between Rawlins and Cheyenne, Wyoming and is impacting crew transportation to our Powder River Basin coal lines. Additionally, the forecast shows the following:

  • Continued freezing temperatures across our east-west main line through Wednesday and impacting the Great Lakes region through Friday, February 3, 2023.
  • An ice storm is expected to develop in the southern portion of our network between Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Southern Missouri and Southern Illinois beginning today through Thursday, February 2, 2023. To mitigate impacts to our operations over the coming days, we have implemented our winter action protocols to respond quickly to any service disruptions.

For customers with rail-served facilities located in the affected area, please be sure to clear all walkways and switches of snow and ice prior to the crew arriving. To get more winter weather preparedness tips, visit Winter Weather Action Plan for Rail Shippers.

If you have any questions, please contact Customer Care & Support at 800-272-8777 or your Union Pacific representative.