Norfolk Southern asks Bellevue to close 5 crossings

By Becky Brooks

Man­ag­ing Editor

news@gazettepublishingco.com

Nor­folk South­ern Rail­road offi­cials have not only asked Belle­vue City lead­ers to keep the Cen­ter Street grade cross­ing per­ma­nently closed, but the rail­road would also like to close the three grade cross­ings on Mon­roe Street and another on East Street.

The rail­road is ask­ing that a total of five exist­ing grade cross­ings be aban­doned by the city in the area where it the rail­road recently improved its lines and added new tracks.

City Safety-Service Direc­tor Jef­frey Crosby empha­sized at a pub­lic meet­ing Thurs­day night at City Cen­tre that no deci­sion has been made and that a final deci­sion on the cross­ing clos­ings would be up to the City Council.

“This hear­ing tonight … is to try to explain what the project would entail,” he stressed. “We have not made any com­mit­ment to the rail­road except to keep the cross­ing closed (on Cen­ter Street) until the City Coun­cil decides…”

Crosby said he was not going to accept ques­tions on Thurs­day night and asked the approx­i­mate 60 peo­ple attend­ing to write their ques­tions on forms and sub­mit them to the city at the end of the hear­ing. He added that the city would take res­i­dents’ ques­tions to the rail­road, seek answers and hold a future hear­ing to pro­vide more infor­ma­tion to the community.

Crosby said lead­ers met with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Nor­folk South­ern, Arm­strong and the Ohio Rail Com­mis­sion over the cross­ing clos­ings issue.

“The Ohio Rail Com­mis­sion is con­cerned with rail safety,” he said. The ORC has informed city lead­ers that it would pro­vide up to $200,000 to the city for each of the cross­ings closed.

The city safety-service direc­tor said that the rail­road informed them that 100 trains a day would be pass­ing through the Cen­ter Street crossing.

Nor­folk South­ern added two addi­tional sets of rails in that area, improved its sig­nal­iza­tion for the trains and now has speeded up the Belle­vue rail traf­fic to 25 miles per hour in the past three weeks.

In the past, the rail traf­fic entered the city at 10 mph, Crosby pointed out.

“Even if we weren’t clos­ing Cen­ter Street, this cross­ing will be a safety issue,” he stated.

Crosby acknowl­edged that the Main Street under­pass (sub­way) was a con­cern for residents.

Cen­ter Street is the first east-west street south of Main Street and has been used by res­i­dents when the sub­way has flooded in the past. Cen­ter Street, how­ever, has been closed since con­struc­tion started on the rail­road sev­eral months ago.

“We tried to address the sub­way,” Crosby said Thurs­day night. Belle­vue has added two more pumps and has a mobile gen­er­a­tor to keep the pumps work­ing in rain events and power out­ages, he said.

“I’m not going to say it’s never going to flood,” the city leader said as the mayor and city engi­neer sat nearby at the front of the coun­cil cham­bers. A map of the city with the pro­posed cross­ing clos­ings was pro­jected on a screen in the dark­ened room.

Crosby added that when he became safety-service direc­tor, the city was crit­i­cized for not doing enough to save Arm­strong, which closed it doors.

He said this time the city was being proactive.

“What we looked at is the eas­i­est way, safest way, for the rail­road to come into the yard,” he told the audi­ence, which asked ques­tions and made com­ments through­out the evening.

“This is the rail­road, and we don’t want to do any­thing to keep the rail­road from expand­ing in Belle­vue,” Crosby stated. He com­mented that all the rail lines bot­tle­neck in the Cen­ter Street cross­ing area.

At that point Crosby unveiled that Nor­folk South­ern wanted to close the three Mon­roe Street Cross­ings and East Street as well.

“That is what they would like us to do,” he told those present.

“We haven’t said yes to any­thing,” he kept repeat­ing. “That has to go to the council.”

Posted by Becky Brooks on Jan 27 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.