Tyrone rail crossing closing in limbo over who will pay

Fri, 10/16/2009 - 3:06pm
By: Ben Nelms

A solution to the question of the closure of railroad crossings in Tyrone remained in limbo Thursday night, with an impasse between the town and the Georgia Department of Transportation stemming from costs that the town says are more than it can bear.

The Town Council was to consider the viability of the current GDOT proposal but was unable to do so because the state transportation department is in process of re-working its proposal documents, Mayor Don Rehwaldt said Friday in reference to a meeting with GDOT officials held last week.

The issue of closing the Valleywood crossing came in 2007 and was initiated by the town after a double fatality at that location in 2001.

The town in 2007 signed a memorandum of understanding with CSX and DOT to close the Valleywood and East Crestwood crossings, construct a new signalized crossing at West Crestwood to facilitate a higher degree of safety and extend Park Drive.

The town’s project estimate earlier this year carried a price tag of $600,000. But current economic conditions led to the council saying that amount was simply too high, Instead, council members agreed to spend no more than $225,000 on the project. Some of the town’s 1-cent sales tax funds had been earmarked for the project.

Accordingly, Tyrone gave that information to GDOT, which led to the continuing discussion on how much should be spent and by which government entity.

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