Railroad crossing stalled

RATHDRUM – Early timelines had a Main Street extension and new railroad crossing being built in Rathdrum in 2007, but difficulties finding the money to finance the project have left the Bridging the Valley project stalled on the tracks.

While transportation officials are still working to secure $5 million in federal money to design the project and purchase right of way it remains unclear how Rathdrum would come up with its $350,000 share in local matching dollars for the project.

“Obviously the city doesn’t have that kind of money,” said Rathdrum City Administrator Brett Boyer.

The city’s annual streets budget is $300,000 explained Rathdrum Public Works Director Chet Anderson.

“There’s been no date because there’s been no funding,” Boyer said. “They’ve been talking about it since 2002.”

Rathdrum has just one crossing where vehicles travel above the BNSF Railway Co. tracks and don’t have to wait for trains. That connection between Highway 41 and Highway 53 can get busy at times, so many drivers seeking an alternative will use the only other crossing in town, the Mill Street at-grade crossing which takes vehicles directly over the tracks.

Such at-grade crossings can be dangerous.

A 19-year-old woman was killed in 2004 at that Rathdrum crossing. Moving traffic to an underpass below the tracks would eliminate the chance a vehicle could collide with one of the 30 to 50 trains that use the tracks each day.

In addition to improving safety, the underpass at Main Street would also speed traffic through town, eliminating the need to wait for trains to pass.

Anderson said drivers sometimes have to wait 20 minutes to cross the tracks at Mill Street.

That’s why the Main Street project was included on a list of 19 Bridging the Valley projects to improve and construct new railroad overpasses and underpasses between Athol and Spokane.

The Rathdrum project was intended to be one of the first completed. Over the years, however, funding has been slow to materialize even as costs to complete the projects have risen.

What was initially a $270 million list of crossing projects would now cost $350 million to complete, said Spokane Regional Transportation Council spokeswoman Staci Lehman.

The entire Rathdrum project, including design, right-of-way acquisition and construction would cost about $12 million.

Even the $5 million in federal money for design and engineering is no guarantee. It would come from$26 million that is dedicated to that particular railroad project category for the entire country, Boyer said.

State money could also be hard to come by as Idaho attempts to tackle many transportation projects, including much needed Interstate 90 interchanges and improvements to U.S. Highway 95.

For Rathdrum, however, the railroad crossing project is key, Boyer said.

“To me getting a second access to Highway 53 is an important issue for the city,” he said.

It’s so important that some have suggested abandoning the slow-moving Bridging the Valley project in favor of simply extending Main Street west to Greensferry Road.

That proposal, though less expensive, met with strong opposition in the past, however, because it would have run through a mobile home park.

So for Rathdrum residents waiting at the Mill Street crossing for trains to pass, the wait for a solution is going to take even longer.