Sierra to fix Xing...

Fix-it ahead for maligned railroad crossing
Published: July 19, 2007
By MIKE MORRIS
The Union Democrat

An infamous and bumpy railroad crossing in East Sonora is about to get smoothed over.
A long-pending agreement has been reached between Tuolumne County and the Sierra Northern Railway to repair the crossing — at the western entrance to Tuolumne Road near The Junction shopping center.
About 17,000 vehicles travel over the crossing each day, making it one of the more congested traffic areas in the county.
It has also been the subject of numerous complaints by county residents for years.
"Asphalt around the tracks has deteriorated to the point that it has become very rough" to drive over, said Darin Grossi, deputy director of the Tuolumne County Public Works Department.
The Tuolumne County Transportation Council will cover the $104,000 bill to fix the railroad crossing.
Sierra Northern Railway crews will complete the work and then be paid by the TCTC.
"The council channels federal and state funding to high-priority projects and obviously this is one of them," Grossi said.
Dave Magaw, president of Woodland-based Sierra Northern Railway, estimated that work will start in a month and last five or six days.
Railroad tracks and ties in the crossing area will be replaced and custom-made concrete panels will be installed on the outside of the tracks and in between them.
"They'll be a lot better than the asphalt crossing that's there now," Magaw said of the concrete panels.
Tuolumne County Public Works crews would then put pavement leading up to the panels, creating a less bumpy ride.
County crews will also provide traffic control during construction.
Because the road widens at the crossing, Grossi said, crews should be able to direct both sides of traffic to one-half of the roadway. Once work on one side is complete, crews will switch to the opposite side.
Drivers now handle the crossing differently: Some drive straight over it, others swerve left or right to avoid it. Some slow to a crawl and inch over it.
Virginia Cummings, a Curtis Creek Ranch resident who crosses the railroad numerous times a week, takes this approach: "I make a complete stop and I go real slow because I don't want to ruin my car or my tires."
The agreement between the county and the railway company has been a long time coming for a variety of reasons.
First, there was the issue of who is responsible for paying for the repairs.
"The damage in that crossing is caused by vehicular traffic, not by trains," Magaw said.
After it was established that Sierra Northern Railway wouldn't pay for the repairs, county officials had to then find a funding source.
The county had sought a grant to fix the crossing from the California Public Utilities Commission but was unsuccessful, so the TCTC stepped in.
Sierra Northern Railway and the county have been working on the just-finished agreement since last fall, Grossi said.
The $104,000 the TCTC will pay breaks down to nearly $26,000 in labor, $11,000 in equipment and about $60,000 in materials, among other costs.
Cummings said she finds the cost of fixing the crossing "absolutely ridiculous."
"You can almost build a house for that amount," she said.
Nonetheless, Cummings was excited to hear an agreement has been reached and that her ride will soon become smoother.
"Finally," she sighed.
"This is really good news. People just grumble about it and nothing ever gets done. We finally get some relief."

Contact Mike Morris at mmorris@uniondemocrat.com or 588-4537.