From DelDOT ~
| Public Meeting | ||
| U.S. 40 Railroad Crossing Replacement | ||
| Oberle Elementary School 500 Caledonia Way Bear | ||
| Tuesday July 9, 2013 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM | ||
| Interested persons are invited to attend to discuss the project and detours. | ||
The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) is holding an Information Meeting to discuss the replacement of the existing railroad crossing on U.S. 40 just east of Route 72 that will be done in conjunction with Norfolk Southern Railway. Safety improvements are required to provide a smooth crossing, correct drainage issues, and add sidewalks compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
To complete this work, there will be a full closure of U.S. 40 from Friday evening, August 9, to Monday morning, August 26; spanning two work weeks and three weekends. All work is dependent on weather conditions and other factors. All local businesses will remain open during the road closure but regional and local detours will be in effect. These detours and other measures to mitigate traffic will be presented at the meeting
And a letter in today's News Journal had some additional information ~ This railroad repair can be done much fasterComments will be received during the meeting or can be mailed to DelDOT Public Relations, P.O. Box 778, Dover, DE 19903 or sent via email to dotpr@state.de.us.
For details, call 760-2080 or (800) 652-5600.
On July 4, you published “Closing to Choke Commute on US 40 ... rail crossing repairs to force 17-day detour.” This is absolutely sinful, abysmal. Whoever planned this fiasco?
I used to do this type of work 20 years ago for Amtrak as project engineer. We would prepare off-site for possibly two weeks, building railroad panels, assembling switches, whatever was needed to complete the job at hand. In a planned outage across a weekend, we would install entire pairs of complex switches interconnecting four separate sets of rails with all grade work, signaling. Everything else required was completed before rush hour Monday morning. Road crossings could be done this way as well.
The U.S. 40 crossing is a simple single-track railroad. Closing it for almost three weeks is a travesty and absolute imposition on travelers and businesses nearby. If this work was planned for two shifts a night, or even one 10-hour shift a night, a temporary crossing for one lane each way could be assembled and disassembled every day easily, allowing traffic to proceed, albeit a bit congested. At most, the initial excavation of the existing track across the site would close the crossing for a day or possibly two. Derailment wrecking companies could do the same in hours.
This project was thrown together with total disregard for pedestrians commuters and loments by state appointed “ business. The railroad or contractors relied on the state and county to reroute around them rather than plan for minimal impact to the community. The perception is they simply do not care.
Marty Perkins
Newark
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