One south-side Galesburg railroad crossing will be closed and several others are slated for major safety upgrades sometime over the next two years.
The Illinois Commerce Commission recently announced more than $500 million in funding to help communities and railroads make much-needed safety improvements at highway-rail grade crossings and bridges located on local roads and streets throughout the State of Illinois.
Nearly $3.5 million will be spent on the projects in Galesburg in Fiscal Year 2024 (July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024).
According to the plans:
- The BNSF crossing at East First Street in Galesburg will be closed.
- Two BNSF crossings on South Seminary Street, along with the one on South Chambers will get new gates and flashing lights.
- BNSF crossings at Pearl, Day, Pine, Lombard and Farnham streets will get new gates and receive modifications to the flashing lights.
- The crossing on Locust Street will get a modified approach, along with gates and modified flashing lights.
Aaron Gavin, City of Galesburg engineer, tells WGIL the closing of the East First Street crossing was a mutual agreement between BNSF and the city.
“BNSF had been wanting to close some crossings on that line, and that was one that we agreed on,” Gavin said. “BNSF will now have one less at-grade crossing to maintain, and we all of the crossings upgraded with safety and warning devices.”
Gavin said with the ICC funding, there will be no cost to the city for the at-grade crossing improvements.
“It’s good to get new gate arms and circuitry on those crossings, especially the ones near schools with school bus traffic,” he said.
Gavin said he doesn’t anticipate the crossings being closed to traffic for extended periods of time.
“Traffic might be disrupted for a day or two here and there, but I don’t anticipate anything longterm,” he said.
Gavin was hopeful the improvements would take place this year, “but we’re not sure. It will depend on material availability.”
Elsewhere in Knox County, Rio and Henderson will receive crossing improvements in 2024.
The crossing at Township Road 207 in East Galesburg is slated to get a new approach, flashing lights and gates between 2025-28.
Interactive map: ICC Five-Year Crossing Safety Improvement Program
The Commission Plan seeks to authorize over $400 million from GCPF and RBI funding for new grade crossing safety improvements and highway-rail grade separations over the course of this five-year horizon at nearly 400 crossing locations. With the availability of Local and Railroad funding matches, this includes:
- 35 new or reconstructed highway-rail grade separations;
- 5 new pedestrian-rail grade separations;
- 368 at-grade crossings with upgrades to warning devices, and
- 15 crossings with low-cost improvements
As of Feb. 1, there were 7,550 public highway-rail grade crossings in Illinois, of which 747 are on state roads, and 6,803 are on local roads. There are 2,677 public highway-rail grade- separated crossings (bridges) in the state. Nationally, Illinois is second only to Texas in the total number of highway-rail crossings.
The ICC notes Illinois is one of the key transportation hubs in the nation. With approximately 7,400 miles of railroad track, its rail system is the country’s second largest, including the nation’s largest rail freight hub in Chicago.
The Grade Crossing Protection Fund, appropriated to the Illinois Department of Transportation but administered by the ICC, was created by state law to assist local jurisdictions (counties, townships and municipalities) in paying for safety improvements at highway-rail crossings on local roads and streets only.
