‘Bridging The Valley’ Group Tours Rail Crossings

The bus stopped near the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks in Rathdrum.

Bob Lloyd talked about the Rathdrum crossings where he hears regular complaints about whistle noise.

As he talked, a train rumbled by, headed toward Spokane.

“They don’t make any noise,” he yelled jokingly.

Lloyd is the director of public works for Rathdrum.

He and 18 other city, county and state officials from Washington and Idaho took a bus tour Monday of the railroad crossings between Spokane and Athol, Idaho.

They looked at the tricky Union Pacific crossing at Pines Road near Indiana. It would be nearly impossible to build an overpass or underpass there, said Vicki Colton, a member of the team that will be researching the crossings.

The group stopped at UP’s Beck Road crossing near Post Falls. The blind crossing sits at the top of a steep hill and doesn’t have safety gates or warning lights.

Two sets of railroad tracks parallel each other through the Spokane Valley and western edge of the Rathdrum Prairie. Roads take drivers across the tracks at 72 spots, called at-grade crossings.

The Spokane Regional Transportation Council recently commissioned the $394,000 study called “Bridging the Valley.”

They hired the consulting firm CH2M Hill to look at the crossings and suggest solutions.

For the next several months, consultants will look at the accident histories for the crossings, traffic counts and train movements. Between 70 and 80 freight and passenger trains pass through the corridor each day.

Initially, two possibilities will be examined.

The first would involve leaving the BNSF and UP tracks where they are and studying safety improvements at existing crossings. This could include building underpasses or overpasses at the busiest crossings and closing others.

The second possibility would involve creating a common corridor for the two railroads. This could mean moving the UP next to the existing Burlington Northern Santa Fe line and building underpasses or overpasses at remaining crossings.

That would eliminate all of the UP crossings.

Changes would help move rail and motor freight more quickly through the area and improve safety for pedestrians and motorists, said CH2M Hill project manager Don Grigg.

“What a farsighted move it is to be looking at the issues now rather than 10 years down the road when there’s more traffic and more development. This is a good time to get started looking at this corridor,” Grigg said.

The big question among those present seemed to be how to fund the results of the study.

State Rep. Lynn Schindler, Fourth District Republican, said she will work on her fellow transportation committee members in the Washington state Legisltaure to help fund the proposal.

“If the study comes back and a good solution is found, I think the state would think it was money well spent,” Schindler said.