14th Street railroad crossing to close for one month
Written by jrood
A portion of 14th Street in Greenville, N.C., will close next week and remain closed for approximately one month, city officials said Feb. 8, the Greenville Daily Reflector reports. The railroad crossing next to Beatty Street, between Dickinson Avenue and Evans Street, is undergoing construction to accommodate a new connector track. Vehicles will be detoured through the use of Dickinson Avenue, and 10th and 14th streets, a news release stated.
That connector is
expected to reduce traffic jams caused by the rail switching station by at
least 75 percent. Currently, trains must stop and detach cars if they need to
change direction from traveling north or south to east or west, and vice versa.
The connector track will enable trains to change direction in one,
uninterrupted motion.
Officials broke ground on
the project Nov. 30. City Engineer David Brown said plans were to begin this
stage of construction in mid-January, but frequent rains have delayed progress
by a month.
Crews previously closed
the crossing at South Pitt Street, which will remain closed permanently.
Access to local
residences and businesses within that portion of 14th Street will remain
available, the news release said.
Construction of the track
and installation of signals at the crossing is expected to take 30 days, Brown
said.
The entire switching
station eventually will be moved north of the Tar River off N.C. 903. That work
is unlikely to begin before 2011.
Greenville engineering
staff is managing the $9.75-million project, partnered with the N.C. Department
of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Transportation, CSX Transportation,
Carolina Coastal Railway and Norfolk Southern.
