Section of downtown railroad bridge overpass collapses on South Clinton Street, no injuries

The City of Syracuse says no injuries were reported from the sidewall collapse.

The City also closed a few roads while crews investigated the incident.

(Friday, July 6 update) Clinton Street remains closed until further notice from Jefferson Street to Adams Street. West Onondaga Street has reopened between South Salina Street to West Street following its closure on Thursday.

Rail traffic has either been halted or redirected in that area as well.

Mayor, police chief comments

“This is an area that has heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic and the fact that no one was injured is very fortunate,” Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said in speaking with reporters at the scene Thursday afternoon.

New York Susquehanna & Western Railway (NYSW) owns the railroad track, which dispatched its chief of police to the scene as well, according to Walsh.

He’s also notified all levels of government about the incident.

“We have ongoing investigation here as to what, in fact, caused the collapse,” said Walsh.

Walsh said the City will want to see “every condition report that’s been produced” on that section of railroad.

“The City does not have jurisdiction to oversee those condition reports. It’s the jurisdiction of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), so we’ve been in touch with Congressman [John] Katko’s office, who’s reaching out to the FRA and we’re going to make sure we’re looking at all those documents. We want to make sure that every bridge is safe in addition to dealing with this specific situation.

City officials are also reviewing video footage from its surveillance cameras in the area, Walsh added.

“It’s important for us to find out why this happened. We don’t jump to any conclusions or make any assumptions. We’re going to get a team of experts in here to evaluate what occurred here today, and it’s going to take us some time to get to what really happened,” Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler said in speaking with reporters at the same media briefing.

Based on what investigators learned initially, it doesn’t appear that anything struck the bridge prior to the collapse, Fowler added.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com