Five railroad crossings to get upgrades

COLUMBUS – Upgrades to five crossings on Marion’s east side are part of a proactive approach to maintain railroads at their maximum efficiency and safety, the Ohio Rail Development Commission’s executive director said.

“We do the analysis of them, and we’ve kind of come to the determination of what needs to be done,” Matt Dietrich of the ORDC said. Estimated cost of the projects is $940,108, 75 percent of which will be paid by the federal government and 25 percent paid by CSX.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio last week approved construction authorization from the ORDC directing installation of gates and mast-mounted flashing lights at the five crossings: two on North Greenwood Street, between Quarry Street and Wilson Avenue, and one each on Madison Avenue, Barnhart Street south of East Mark Street, and Jefferson Street south of George Street.

Dietrich said the upgrades are part of a project to improve rail along the CSX rail lines from Galion, 22 miles east of Marion, to Union City at the Indiana state line.

The ORDC and CSX began discussing the corridor in January 2010, said Kristin Seay, CSX spokeswoman, adding that no specific facilities located or projected developments along the corridor were a factor.

“It was the first corridor project in the state that we worked with them on,” Seay said.

They initially discussed which crossings could be closed before reviewing safety devices and seeking to upgrade “those that needed upgrading.”

Dietrich said while the crossings already have gates and mast-mounted flashing lights the upgrades may include replacing some or all of those devices, but also may include installation of additional circuitry.

“A lot of this this is circuitry,” he said. “It’s behind the scenes. People don’t see it.”

He said the ORDC addresses circuitry issues to make sure, for example, that gates come down at a consistent time no matter how fast a train is moving.

“The corridors allow us to be more proactive with the railroads,” Dietrich said. “We try to get as much information as possible: Are you seeing near-misses? Are you having high volumes? ... A lot of this goes into these discussions, and we settle on these corridors.”

The upgrades on North Greenwood are to be completed by Oct. 14, 2015, and the others are to be done by July 14, 2016. The improvements in the corridor are being made east to west.

No surprise to many Marion residents, the city lies in one of the busier regions for rail activity, he said.

“The northern tier of Ohio has some really busy rail lines there, so with the volumes going on it’s in everybody’s best interest to have as up-to-date, modernized crossings as we can,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re waiting for crashes to happen. ... Obviously, if we get the railroads participating in it, it stretches our dollars farther.”

Cost of the projects are: North Greenwood, south of Quarry, $157,109; North Greenwood, north of Wilson, $149,453; Barnhart, $230,452; Madison, $236,224; Jefferson, $166,870.

jjarvis@marionstar.com

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Twitter: @jmwjarvis