The Warren County Commission heard a request Thursday morning to close down a Norfolk Southern railroad crossing at the track’s intersection with Franklin Road, but took no action on the …
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The Warren County Commission heard a request Thursday morning to close down a Norfolk Southern railroad crossing at the track’s intersection with Franklin Road, but took no action on the proposal.
The proposal was submitted by Eric Curtit with Crawford, Murphy & Tilly, who said that the Missouri Department of Transportation is looking at providing funds for the closure of three crossings of the Norfolk Southern line in Warren County. The crossings under consideration are at Franklin Road, in Truesdale at Market Street and in Warrenton at Troy Road.
Curtit said the greatest issue in rail safety is rail crossings. He said a study regarding rail crossings has been done and the state identified a number of crossings that they recommended be closed, including the three in Warren County. He said MoDOT is offering communities a $300,000 incentive to completely obliterate the crossings they have identified that need to be closed.
Curtit also noted MoDOT does not do what he calls “contested crossings” meaning if a community does not wish to accept the funds to close the crossing, MoDOT will merely move on to offer those funds to another community with a proposed closure.
Curtit added that in addition to the funds from MoDOT, the railroad would probably also offer incentives for the proposed closure, but that the figure would be closer to $25,000.
In response to the request, Commissioner Dave Mikus asked Curtit how the proposed closure would be explained to those living on Franklin Road.
Curtit replied, “the safest crossing is a closed crossing.”
Curtit added the detour around the crossing area would be less than 10 minutes, which is one of the variables considered when closing a crossing.
Mikus then asked what would happen if the crossing was upgraded with gates and lights. Curtit said the cost for such upgrades would be in the neighborhood of $500,000 and the county would be responsible to pay for upkeep.
In response to a question regarding train traffic along the line, Curtit said that it averages around 10 trains a day.
As this was the first time the commissioners had been presented with the proposal, they took no action on the matter.
