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MURA to smooth rough crossings Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell The railroad crossing at Medford's Eighth Street is overdue for improvements. Medford's Urban Renewal Agency will spend $2.6 million to upgrade this and four other torn-up crossings in town. By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Relief may be rolling down the track soon for downtown drivers frustrated with bumpy railroad crossings. The Medford Urban Renewal Agency plans to upgrade five downtown crossings on Fourth, Sixth, Main, Eighth and 10th streets over the next two years. Work may begin by summer on the estimated $2.6 million project. "We want to make the crossings more convenient and less disruptive," said agency Director Don Burt. "Some of the crossings are pretty rough." Smoothing a railroad crossing is no simple task. The urban renewal agency must get approval from the Oregon Department of Transportation and must meet Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad requirements to upgrade nearly a mile's worth of crossing computers. "The circuitry that's in there now is 40-year-old technology and way beyond its life expectancy," said Rich Gollen, director of signals for Rail America's 48 railroads in the United States and Canada. He oversees Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad's approximate 120 crossings in Oregon. The new computers will predict train speeds and arrival times and communicate that information to circuitry stretching from Jackson to 11th streets, Gollen said. Federal law requires the crossing arms to drop 20 seconds before a train arrives. That happens four times a day in Medford when lumber-loaded trains rumble through downtown at 25 mph. "We want the safest possible crossing for the public and for the trains," Gollen said. Besides upgrading circuitry, urban renewal plans to install new crossing arms, pour new sidewalks and curbs and replace asphalt approaches with pre-manufactured concrete panels. "Each crossing may have about a dozen panels linked together," said Eric Iversen, urban renewal's senior planner. "They go in very quickly - they can be done in a week ." Concrete makes for a smoother crossing because it's stronger, lasts longer and is more stable than asphalt, Iversen said. The crossing projects will be done at the same time Medford Urban Renewal builds a new street alongside the railroad tracks, one block at a time. "The railroad divides the downtown core in half," Iversen said. "That's why we're doing things like Evergreen Street, to bring activity to this area and have a north-south corridor." Downtown crossings are better than they used to be. When Medford Urban Renewal purchased property a few years ago for the Evergreen Street project, the railroad moved some of the old tracks to the railyard by the McAndrews overpass. That meant less steel for car wheels to maneuver over. Drivers will find smoother crossings in other Southern Oregon cities. In Grants Pass, all seven crossings were improved during ODOT's widening of Sixth and Seventh streets. In Rogue River, crews will begin in June rebuilding the Depot Street crossing near the Interstate 5 interchange. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.