Task
Force Lists Worst Rail Crossings
2/10/2000
By ED BALINT
Repository staff
writer
CANTON -- A railroad
crossing at Price Street in northern Lexington Township is
the most dangerous in the county, according to the Stark
County Railroad Safety Task Force.
The spot topped
a list of 20 railroad crossings that the task force has ranked
by considering existing safety devices, visibility, curves
in the road, the amount of train and auto traffic, and accidents
at the crossings.
The Price Street
crossing at the eastern edge of Limaville, near Route 183,
has seen a spike in train traffic -- from 26 trains a day
to 44 -- since CSX and Norfolk Southern acquired Conrail.
Train traffic that
used to run through Canton now passes the Price crossing,
where trains travel 60 miles per hour on the Norfolk Southern
line, according to task force members.
The crossing has
warning signs but no gates or flashing lights.
But without high
accident rates at crossings, task force members say state
officials often won't use federal funds to foot the bill
to improve crossings like Price and others in Stark County.
"Just because
the crossing doesn't have a death or something like that
doesn't mean it's not important enough to have gates or flashers," said
Ken Groves, a task force member and a traffic technician
for the city of Canton.
If communities can
provide 30 percent of a project's cost, the Public Utilities
Commission of Ohio and the Ohio Rail Development Commission
will use federal money to contribute 60 percent, and the
railroad company will have to chip in the rest.
But communities
often can't afford to provide their share, according to Stephen
Bryan, co-chairman of the task force and a traffic engineer
for the city of Canton.
Task force members
have sent letters to villages, cities and townships where
the ranked crossings are located, making those officials
aware of the state funding formula and funding through the
Angels on Track Foundation.
The foundation was
founded by Dennis and Vicky Moore, whose son died in an auto
accident at a crossing on the border of Stark and Wayne counties.
Angels on Track,
which established the task force about two years ago, wanted
the local ranking, according to Bryan.
Angels
on Track "felt
that the people of Stark County knew their crossings better
than someone in Columbus,"
Bryan said, "and they want to make sure the people in
Stark County have a voice on which (crossings) weâre
going to upgrade."
In 1997, Stark County
had the most accidents and deaths at railroad crossings,
according to Groves.
The county is now
ranked sixth by the Public Utilities Commission, according
to Groves. Stark County has the most public railroad crossings
-- 238 -- of any county in the state, he said.
A crossing on Forty
Corners Street in Jackson Township, just west of Erie Avenue,
has been ranked sixth by the task force, and it has funding
in place. Improvements will be done late this year or early
next year, according to Groves.
The state wouldn't
pay the total cost for improvements at the crossing, because
the state hadn't ranked it high enough. But Jackson Township
provided $48,000, enough to get the state and railroad company
to pay for the rest.
Angels on Track
will reimburse Jackson Township for $32,000 of its share.
|
