Progress appears to have slowed on efforts to repair some of the railroad crossings in the City of Plymouth. During Monday’s Common Council meeting, council member Don Ecker Jr. asked if there was any update on the crossings at Harrison and Jefferson Streets.
City Attorney Sean Surrisi had been in contact with officials from Pioneer Railroad, which owns the line, but he says it’s been a while since he’s heard anything, “The last we had left it there, they had sent their staff out to make an assessment and then had sent his recommendations back to his boss to, I guess, make the decision of scheduling things. And it’s been with him for probably two months now, and I need to follow up on that.”
Ecker’s calling for the process to keep moving ahead. “I would like to see us keep the pressure on it because at some point, someone’s going to lose an axle on one of their vehicles,” he said. “The holes are getting bigger, and you can only do so much as these crossings to minimize it.”
Street Superintendent Jim Marquardt says that the city has tried patching the crossings, but this type of repair is only temporary. Ecker added that he’s also gotten some complaints about the condition of the crossing at Oak Road, just south of U.S. 30.
Meanwhile, the city’s also working with the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern Railroad, which leases the other rail line in the city, to make some improvements. Specifically, Plymouth has been discussing upgrades to the viaducts at Michigan Street and 3rd Street.
However, council member Gary Cook says the area around the Center Street overpass can also use some improvements while crews are in the area. He says ballast is falling down the embankment onto the sidewalk and that some landscaping work needs to be done to clean up overgrown brush.
Surrisi plans to discuss the issue with railroad officials.
