If you’ve been holding your breath waiting for the Michigan Department of Transportation or a nearby railroad to repair a rough railroad grade crossing anywhere near you in Michigan’s Great Southwest in recent times, there’s a good chance you’ll be decidedly blue before that happens here.
The team at MDOT this morning has posted the “winners” in their 4th Annual Local Grade Crossing Surface Program, and not one crossing anywhere in the Tri-County region of Berrien, Cass and Van Buren Counties has made the list. In fact, only one crossing in Berrien and one in Van Buren have ever made the list in the four year plan…and those were both made in the first year of 2017.
MDOT says as a part of their commitment to improving safety and the quality of Michigan’s transportation system, they’ve determined the recipients for the 4th Annual Local Grade Crossing Surface Program which will happen next year in 2020. Nothing local has made the grade.
Each of the 41 projects for the coming year was selected on a competitive basis established by state law. Those 41 projects were awarded approximately $3 million to fund highway-railroad grade crossing surface improvements, which could involve anything from minor asphalt repairs to installing completely new track and surface materials.
To be fair, we don’t know if any of the crossings in the Tri-County area were submitted in the competition over the four year span. However, this year, 81 applications were submitted to MDOT by 40 road agencies in partnership with 17 railroad companies.
The program offers 60-percent funding for eligible projects, with railroads responsible for the remaining 40-percent of costs. All repair work is performed by the railroad company and its contractors, with cooperation for detour routes provided by the local road agencies. The railroad and local road agency are responsible for scheduling the construction work.
Since its inception, there have been some decidedly notable winners. Here’s a list of the biggest winners since 2017:
- Ingham County = 34. They won 33 crossing improvements in the first year and they’ll have 1 in 2020.
- Wayne County = 25. They’ve won something every year including 6 ahead in 2020.
- Saginaw County = 18. They’ve picked up deals each year including 6 on the docket for 2020.
- Kalamazoo County = 16. They’ve had at least one each year and 2 ahead for the New Year.
- Kent County = 11. In the game most years, Kent has 4 projects in the win column for 2020.
- Newaygo County = 7. They’ve won something every other year, with 4 in line for 2020.
- Jackson County = 7. They pulled in 7 deals for 2018, but nothing prior and none for 2020.
The only Berrien County project to win was the crossing on Hilltop Road in the inaugural year of 2017. That was also the only year that Van Buren had a winning project when the crossing at 59 1/2 Street was given the green light for repairs. Cass County has not had a winning project at any time in the four year program, but we also don’t know if they have applied and been denied, or just not attempted to gain approval.
Allegan County has its first ever project on the list in the year ahead.
The community of Bridgman rallied earlier this year to force repairs by CSX Railroad of a seriously deteriorated crossing on Church Street, using the power of public pressure through Facebook posts when nobody from railroad would return their calls. Within days that crossing was dramatically improved thanks to that public pressure.
Click the link below to see which communities will get funding in 2020:
