Drivers have been slowly learning to negotiate the road closures and detours that have complicated travel in Moorhead in recent weeks. But they were confronted with two new and unexpected hurdles Monday morning: work on the railroad tracks that bisect downtown.
On Monday morning, commuters discovered BNSF crews had blocked off the rail crossings at Fourth and Fifth Streets between Main and Center Avenues. Coupled with construction work already underway on Center – which has closed the key intersection of Center and Eighth – drivers were left to head east and cross at 11th, then worm their way back to City Hall and the mall via First Avenue … or drive to Fargo on Main, then back on Center.
“The railroad didn’t ask or tell us about this,” Mayor Del Rae Williams said Monday.
Assistant city engineer Jon Atkins says he learned of the plan at week’s end and could only attempt to get word out through the media on Saturday. “They did notify me last week, but what they didn’t tell us was the overall work plan,” he explains. “They are replacing the rails with newer, larger, high-strength rail to help prevent derailments in town.”
While that work is welcome – “that would make any of us shudder,” Atkins says – its timing is unfortunate. “Of all years to do this, the coordination on the front end would have been nice. But given the way the railroad does their planning, I really don’t know if we could have done things differently.”
The mayor notes that BNSF’s earlier reconstruction of the railroad crossing on 30th Avenue South/Village Green Boulevard and 20th Street South also added to the anticipated traffic confusion. That intersection is now open in all four directions. “We’d bumped that project to be finished last year, because we knew that MnDOT would be doing the diverging diamond project on Highway 75 and I-94 this summer. They told us they’d have their part done (in 2015).” That didn’t happen.
While Fourth and Fifth Street crossings should be open again by the time you read this, Atkins warns that the same kind of closure will take place on the 11th Street crossing early next week. The exact time frame is not available: “I’ve asked them to do it partly or wholly on the weekend, but it remains to be seen if they can do that for us to reduce the impact on the closure of Center Avenue.”
He cautions that the closures will be repeated again in about six weeks as crews come through again and replace the ties on the south set of the tracks. “They do the track replacement first, and then the ties,” he explains. “The newer, larger rail makes extra holes in the ties, reducing their life. If they replace them after the track, then everything lasts much longer and reduces the maintenance closures over the next few years.”
Street work continues downtown on Center Avenue from Eighth to 11th Streets. Customers can still access Taco John’s and Mick’s on the south and, to the north, Wells Fargo Bank and NAPA Auto Parts from the edge of the active construction zone on Eighth Street.
MnDOT’s reconstruction of the I-94 overpass on Highway 75 is moving forward quickly, though workers are taking a break tomorrow through Monday. Most activity centers on the east side, including the entrance and exit ramps.
MnDOT’s Jerimiah Moerke reminds drivers that the 30th Avenue intersection is temporarily closed. Short detours direct drivers to the frontage road on the east side of Highway 75. The standard Eighth Street detour uses 20th Street to circumvent the project.
