SALIDA RAILROAD CROSSINGS

As a concerned Salida resident, I contacted the Union Pacific office in Roseville regarding the deplorable state of our crossings here in downtown Salida. I was referred to Mark Mahoney who is responsible for the maintenance of the tracks and surrounding areas. Mr. Mahoney was very helpful and is quite interested in assisting us in cleaning up the areas surrounding the tracks. He was also able to refer me to Patrick Kerr for discussion of the crossing situation.

After a lengthy conversation with Mr. Kerr, I then contacted Mr. Dave Meyers from the Stanislaus County Traffic Department and discussed with him Union Pacific’s plan to upgrade our crossing to concrete. It appears that there is a question of who is responsible for specific work in the project and to clarify the entire issue, a meeting was held at the Roseville U.P. office on Friday, January 28^th. Mr. Meyers attended this meeting on behalf of Stanislaus County.

I spoke with Mr. Meyers on Tuesday, February 1^st and he advised that several staff members from the County will be attending a meeting next Thursday (February 10^th) to discuss the County’s involvement with the railroad for this project.

A letter is being prepared by Mr. Meyers to inform the railroad of specifics needed by Union Pacific (such as location of crossings, project date conflicts) to proceed in scheduling this work over the next six months.

The concrete crossings will ensure that we no longer suffer from "rabbit ears" on the edge of pavement to track area that we now must endure. The crossings at Kiernan and Broadway (as well as the crossing on the south side of town that is the City of Modesto’s) are scheduled for replacement of asphalt to concrete crossings. However, the trains will be moving at a higher speed and therefore railroad track safety becomes a greater issue. Mr. Kerr has provided the name and phone number for the person responsible for conducting railroad crossing safety "classes" and this will be coordinated with the schools, churches if interested, they will participate in the Salida Safety Fair and any community meetings we can arrange. As we have become complacent in the crossing arms not necessarily meaning a train is approaching, particularly our children need to be re-educated on the dangers of trains and crossings with a reminder that it is quite dangerous to cross the tracks without proper care.

Modesto Bee is preparing an article for paper on the crossing issue, and Mr. Kerr and Mr. Meyers were contacted for this article. I was also interviewed for this article for a resident’s perspective.

The work to install concrete crossings will surely improve the drive for all of us that take these routes. The cooperation of the County and the Union Pacific Railroad is appreciated in this endeavor.