Secretary Buttigieg Visits Grand Forks as the City Receives $30M for Rail Crossing Project

Written by Jennifer McLawhorn, Managing Editor
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"20210810 15 BNSF RR near Minot, North Dakota" by davidwilson1949 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

GRAND FORKS, North Dak. – U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visits Grand Forks as DOT awards grant for rail crossing project.

A $30 million grant was awarded to the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota to fund a project to build an underpass. The intersection of 42nd Street and DeMers Avenue is at the center of the project, and the underpass will include a 10-foot-wide path for pedestrians. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, said that the intersection in question has “experienced 69 crashes, causing 12 injuries over the past 5 years, including a vehicle-train collision”. 

An underpass for cars and pedestrians mitigates the delays experienced not only by civilians, but also by emergency responders. Grand Forks’ fire chief, Gary Lorenz, gave his thanks for the funding as the project will help reduce “potential vehicle-train collisions at the intersection, along with unimpeded travel for emergency responders to the northwest section of the city”. 

The federal grant is the largest for a rail project in Grand Forks’ history, and Mayor Brandon Bochenski stated that he “would also like to thank our city engineering staff for their relentless work along with the North Dakota Department of Transportation and (rail company) BNSF to try to find a funding solution for this project”. 

North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer commented that “this bipartisan infrastructure law . . . helped to make possible grants across the country and North Dakota”. 

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