Each track owner shall adopt a bridge safety management program to prevent the deterioration of railroad bridges by preserving their capability to safely carry the traffic to be operated over them, and reduce the risk of human casualties, environmental damage, and disruption to the Nation's railroad transportation system that would result from a catastrophic bridge failure, not later than the dates in the following schedule:

(a) March 14, 2011: Class I carriers;

(b) March 14, 2011: Owners of track segments which are part of the general railroad system of transportation and which carry more than ten scheduled passenger trains per week;

(c) September 13, 2011: Class II carriers to which paragraph (b) of this section does not apply; and

(d) September 13, 2012: All other track owners subject to this part and not described paragraphs (a) through (c) of this section.

Each bridge management program adopted in compliance with this part shall include, as a minimum, the following:

(a) An accurate inventory of railroad bridges, which shall include a unique identifier for each bridge, its location, configuration, type of construction, number of spans, span lengths, and all other information necessary to provide for the management of bridge safety;

(b) A record of the safe load capacity of each bridge;

(c) A provision to obtain and maintain the design documents of each bridge if available, and to document all repairs, modifications, and inspections of each bridge; and

(d) A bridge inspection program covering as a minimum:

(1) Inspection personnel safety considerations;

(2) Types of inspection including required detail;

(3) Definitions of defect levels along with associated condition codes if condition codes are used;

(4) The method of documenting inspections including standard forms or formats;

(5) Structure type and component nomenclature; and

(6) Numbering or identification protocol for substructure units, spans, and individual components.