Staff writer
Marion Main St. motorists will not have to slow down once repairs are made to a Main St. speed bump.
City administrator Roger Holter said he recently discussed needed repairs of the railroad crossing with Union Pacific Railroad representative Eric Puttroff.
A date has not been officially confirmed, but Holter said that it would happen sometime after the first of the year.
While the crossing is within Department of Transportation tolerance levels, the jarring bumps drivers have experienced have been an obvious annoyance.
“It’s not a safety issue at this point,” Holter said. “It’s just a real inconvenience because you have to slow down so much.”
The city started receiving complaints about the railroad crossing in September right after K-256 detour traffic from the roundabout construction stopped coming through town.
“While there’s no way of knowing,” Holter said, “the increased traffic, in my personal opinion, was a factor in how quickly that crossing deteriorated.”
Existing steel and concrete panels that go between the rails will be taken out and new ones inserted, Holter said. Asphalt on both sides of the crossing will be nailed back down to make the surface more level.
Holter said that two crossings north of Main St. will become gated crossings sometime in the spring.
The crossings are located at Santa Fe and Washington Sts.