Dangerous crossings get attention

A farmer discovered the two men, dead in their truck.

The force of the train crossing Hayden Avenue in September knocked the 1989 Mazda pickup 100 feet into the farmer’s field west of Highway 41.

Then in March, a train slammed a truck and horse trailer near Boekel Road in Rathdrum. The driver escaped with a bump on the head, and the horses sustained minor injuries.

And just last month, Spirit Lake City Councilman Steve Gaddum was killed at Meyer Road on the Rathdrum Prairie, when his 1996 Land Rover collided with a Union Pacific engine.

The recent spate of accidents highlight the need for a regional project, called Bridging the Valley, that intends to eliminate about 75 at-grade railroad crossings in the 42-mile corridor between Spokane and Athol in the next half-dozen years or more, officials say.

“I think they’re going to have to do something,” Spirit Lake Mayor Roxy Martin said. “I don’t think people have to be killed to get something done.”

Finding funding for the $320 million project, though, has been slow, said project manager Glenn Miles, the executive director of the Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization.

“It takes a lot of time for a program of projects like this to occur,” said Miles, who also serves as manager of the Spokane County Regional Transportation Council. “If the community believes it’s something it wants to do, there has to be tenacity to see it through.”

The plan aims to separate vehicles from train traffic by building overpasses or underpasses and closing nearby at-grade crossings. The BNSF Railway line also will be expanded to accommodate Union Pacific traffic, so most Union Pacific at-grade crossings can be closed.

The project has secured $26 million so far, Miles said, but full federal funding has not been dedicated. Officials hope the federal government will fund a new transportation program that would provide up to $20 million a year per state for rail relocation, with 90 percent federal funding and 10 percent state or local matching funds, Miles said.

Without sure funding, a specific construction timeline is difficult to pin down, Miles said.

“It’s not going as fast as we’d like it to,” he said. The project now has finished preliminary engineering plans to consolidate the Union Pacific and BNSF railroad tracks, secured environmental clearance and received permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, he said.

Local projects

Bridging the Valley’s first scheduled project is the Havana Street crossing in Spokane, which may go out for bid this fall, Miles said. On the Idaho side, the first project likely will be an underpass in Rathdrum at Main Street or an overpass and highway interchange on Pleasant View Road and Highway 53, he said.

Both Idaho projects will cost more than $12 million apiece, Miles said.

In Rathdrum, the Main Street crossing is considered one of the most dangerous in Kootenai County, as rated by the Federal Railroad Administration.

The plan would close Rathdrum’s second crossing at Mill Street, the site of a 19-year-old woman’s death in late 2004, when her car was struck by a train.

“The consensus here in City Hall was ‘Yay, one of our major problems will be solved,’” Rathdrum Mayor Brian Steele said of when the project was proposed.

But Rathdrum is struggling to come up with more than $246,000 in matching funds for the project – which city officials say took them off-guard.

“I had always been under the assumption that this Bridging the Valley wasn’t going to cost us anything,” Steele said. “We’re going to get our crossings. It goes back to that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

Miles said the situation amounts to miscommunication about preliminary engineering, which was fully funded.

Bridging the Valley plans also call for construction of an underpass at the Highway 54 crossing in Athol, considered by the FRA as one of the most dangerous in the county.

Two pedestrians have died at the Highway 54 crossing in the time he took office 12 years ago, said Athol Mayor Lanny Spurlock.

Residents are ready for the project to begin, especially to reduce the piercing whistles from passing trains, Spurlock said.

Driving responsibly

Despite the region’s plans to reduce the danger at railroad crossings, drivers ultimately are responsible for paying attention, Idaho State Police Capt. Wayne Longo said.

“It’s pretty frustrating for us,” Longo said of drivers’ inattention.

Longo said he has watched drivers skirt crossing arms to avoid waiting for a train to pass.

“If someone’s hell-bent to beat the train, they’re going to beat the train,” Longo said. “Is it worth four minutes of your time to wait for a train?”

Contact staff writer Hope Brumbach at 765-7124 or by e-mail at hopeb@spokesman.com.