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Carthage officials believe their talks with the railroads with regards to the famous Oak Street bridge may have reached a minor milestone, but the two sides are no where near starting work on the bridge.
City Administrator Tom Short told Carthage Council members that a representative of the Union Pacific Railroad told local officials the railroad may own the historic Route 66 bridge and, therefore, could bear partial responsibility for its maintenance and possible replacement.
Short said representatives of the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Union Pacific Railroad and Missouri and Northwest Arkansas Railroad recently met with Short and Mayor Jim Woestman to talk about the city’s refusal to go along with improvements to the River Street railroad crossing.
Short reminded members of the City Council’s Public Works Committee that the city was blocking the closing of a railroad crossing at an alley near Elm Street and Zapata Way and improved signals at the crossing on River Street between Central Street and Missouri Highway 96 until the state and railroads talked to the city about the stalled efforts to rebuild the famous “Whee” bridge.
Short said MoDOT gave the city a grant to rebuild the bridge about three years ago, but when construction plans were being prepared, MNA railroad demanded that the bridge’s height be increased from its current 19 feet to as much as 26 feet.
“They’re asking now for a vertical clearance of 23 feet six inches and that was something we negotiated down to,” Short said. “They were talking about bringing in triple-stacked railroad cars and I think their clearance was around 26 feet. They’re looking for as high as they can get.”
The estimated cost of the rebuild has ballooned since the grant was originally awarded.
“When it was originally planned and budgeted, it was a little more than $200,000,” Short said. “It was a MoDOT grant we received about three years ago to pay for the majority of it. It went up to about $300,000, then $400,000. Now it’s about $600,000.”
Short said no one at the city is sure what will change if Union Pacific Railroad, which leases the line under the Oak Street bridge to MNA, decides that it does own the bridge.
Short said a MoDOT representative has called the city a couple of times since that meeting to talk about other options involving other bridges and crossings that might free up more money to replace the Oak Street bridge.
Carthage officials believe their talks with the railroads with regards to the famous Oak Street bridge may have reached a minor milestone, but the two sides are no where near starting work on the bridge.
City Administrator Tom Short told Carthage Council members that a representative of the Union Pacific Railroad told local officials the railroad may own the historic Route 66 bridge and, therefore, could bear partial responsibility for its maintenance and possible replacement.
Short said representatives of the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Union Pacific Railroad and Missouri and Northwest Arkansas Railroad recently met with Short and Mayor Jim Woestman to talk about the city’s refusal to go along with improvements to the River Street railroad crossing.
Short reminded members of the City Council’s Public Works Committee that the city was blocking the closing of a railroad crossing at an alley near Elm Street and Zapata Way and improved signals at the crossing on River Street between Central Street and Missouri Highway 96 until the state and railroads talked to the city about the stalled efforts to rebuild the famous “Whee” bridge.
Short said MoDOT gave the city a grant to rebuild the bridge about three years ago, but when construction plans were being prepared, MNA railroad demanded that the bridge’s height be increased from its current 19 feet to as much as 26 feet.
“They’re asking now for a vertical clearance of 23 feet six inches and that was something we negotiated down to,” Short said. “They were talking about bringing in triple-stacked railroad cars and I think their clearance was around 26 feet. They’re looking for as high as they can get.”
The estimated cost of the rebuild has ballooned since the grant was originally awarded.
“When it was originally planned and budgeted, it was a little more than $200,000,” Short said. “It was a MoDOT grant we received about three years ago to pay for the majority of it. It went up to about $300,000, then $400,000. Now it’s about $600,000.”
Short said no one at the city is sure what will change if Union Pacific Railroad, which leases the line under the Oak Street bridge to MNA, decides that it does own the bridge.
Short said a MoDOT representative has called the city a couple of times since that meeting to talk about other options involving other bridges and crossings that might free up more money to replace the Oak Street bridge.
“As we got talking, one of the suggestions was shutting down the Walnut Street bridge and the Sycamore Street bridge and routing everything through to the Oak Street bridge,” Short said. “I think the mayor reinforced it with the railroad and MoDOT that that was not an idea that had been approved by anyone, that it was an idea that could be considered later on and would have to go through the process, if it was even viable.”
Short said a MoDOT representative called a second time and “dropped another bomb.”
Short said MoDOT told him the city might be able to access more federal money if it considered closing a second railroad crossing besides the crossing on the alley near Elm Street.
“They wanted to suggest that we consider closing down the River Street crossing,” Short said. “I said that’s quite heavily used by truck traffic that comes off of Chestnut then goes north on River. He was just saying if the city were willing to do something like that, we might be able to get a couple of hundred thousand dollars from them, but something like that may not be worth it. Those are things for further discussion and we need to get some more public input on that as it’s progressing.”
Committee members and Mayor Woestman, who was in the audience at the committee meeting, said closing the River Street crossing was not an option.
“There’s no way trucks can go from River on Central and get up on 96,” Woestman said. “You’re looking for major accidents. That can’t even be considered.”
Short said the city was waiting to hear from Union Pacific Railroad and hoped to have more meetings with the state and the railroads in the near future.
