From the Decatur Minute…
CSX is expected to begin maintenance on the Candler Street, McDonough Street and Atlanta Avenue railroad crossings next week (week of January 12th) for railroad tie maintenance. Each intersection will be closed for 2-3 days. Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians will be directed to detours at either the East Lake Drive or Commerce Drive underpasses.
For more information, contact Project Civil Engineer Jennings Bell at 404-370-4104 or CSX Railroad at 877-835-5279.
2010 railroad crossing photo courtesy of Beth
Is this completely apart from the Trinity Triangle construction that cause sidewalk disruptions and rerouting of pedestrians and cyclists, especially walk/cycle-to-school groups?
What do you mean by “completely apart”? This is CSX maintenance and Trinity Triangle is likely not being developed by CSX. 🙂
It is normal maintenance by CSX. Nothing to do with the construction.
So all three crossings would be closed simultaneously? It’d be nice if they could do them one at the time, it seems. But I guess that 6-9 days of no trains coming through would be a big problem for them. I wonder if this will affect train traffic at other area crossings. Diverting north (the East Lake Crossing, I guess) would be inefficient, but it might be more efficient than having no freight move through the area for several days.
Can’t say for certain but in the past they’ve done one at a time.
The route that crosses East Lake goes to Athens and is way out of the way considering that trains that go through Decatur go to Augusta and Charleston.
CSX has ties piled up all the way through Decatur. That job is going to take a while. They will be re-routing trains and for eastbound traffic out of the intown piggyback yard the only way to re-route is the Park Line toward Athens.
Yeah, they’re rehabbing the whole line. I’m guessing that they will work during the day and trains will run (at reduced speeds) during the night. You should see the machines that do the work – awesome !
I have a number of cracks in my plaster that I can attribute specifically to the awesome machine of which you speak. It’s a helluva ground shaker. 😉
Just a heads up workers from CSX were stopping traffic randomly today midday hours at McDonough Street so a machine riding the tracks could go back and forth in that area. It had traffic backed a block each way on East College (dead stopped that is)
That little tunnel at Agnes Scott under the tracks – I hope it stays open. High school kids on the south side and middle school kids on the north side need to be prepared to use that tunnel. I bet over 200 kids cross the tracks on foot one way, each day, in pursuit of getting to class on time. I hope the school district is thinking about the fact that this is going to be the mother-of-all-flusterclucks for walkers, bikers, bus and car riders, and the rest of us.
I did talk to my high schooler about the track closings so he would know he would probably need to use the tunnel next week. Is there a crossing guard there generally? I don’t remember seeing one.
I don’t think there is one there typically. But could be wrong.
But that is the type of planning/thinking that I hope the city/schools are doing to prepare for this. Can it be overstated how disruptive this has the potential of being?
CSX does this overhaul process on the line every couple of years. Other than being one of life’s many inconveniences, I don’t recall it ever amounting to a major disruption. What makes you think it’ll be one this time?
Because this is NEW Decatur, Scott. There are rich, important people living here now! Inconveniences may have been acceptable to the poor schlubs of Old Decatur but that’s why we kicked them out and McMansionized their houses. Amirite?
I wasn’t aware of this being routine. So maybe I’m wrong about how disruptive it will be based on past experiences. I hope I’m wrong. That said, there are, what?, twice as many middle and high school kids now than there were when it happened last. So, while I admire J_T’s remarks for their biting cleverness, he is actually correct in that this has the potential of being somewhat different, as more school kids cross those tracks daily than ever before (at least in a generation). I don’t know. Maybe it’s no big deal. Sorry to be alarmist. I was just thinking it might be a good idea to have a plan to try to alleviate headaches. Even poor people like me like to avoid headaches if possible.
If the pain becomes unbearable, I’ll buy you a Jager or three at Trackside. If you can get there…
It’s routine as in every 5 years or so.
Hey, at least the PATH is open again behind the Trinity project!
I was thinking about that too: if it was still closed to pedestrians there would be a big problem for walking students.