Town will pay 10% of work at railroad crossing
Town Board members have agreed to contribute $96,000 toward the $960,000 cost of engineering improvements at the
CSX railroad crossing at Boice’s Lane.
The funding was authorized Thursday, March 18, during a video conference meeting. Supervisor James Quigley said after the meeting the plans will be based on the 2013 engineering report submitted by the Ulster County Transportation Council.
“It would be putting in a series of new control points for the traffic and ... pedestrians crossing the tracks,” he said. “There’s going to be improvements to some of the geometry of the turns there and you’re going to have new traffic signals and new computer controls to control those signals.”
Among the devices that would be installed are sen
sors that would inform approaching trains whether crossings are clear or have obstructions on the tracks.
“There’s a new set of signals that have to be installed along the railroad tracks that convey the location of a train in relation to the (crossing) gates and speed,” Quigley said.
The Boice’s Lane crossing is between Morton Boulevard and John M. Clark Drive. Engineers said the traffic patterns at those intersections must be taken into account. Included are changes needed to accommodate drivers who travel east on Boice’s Lane but turn onto Morton Boulevard, as well as adjustments need for people driving north on Morton who want to turn left onto Boice’s to avoid having to wait when a train is coming through.
State transportation officials have the final say on which improvements are made. Projects included in the 2013 report are:
• Widening and extending the eastbound rightturn lane from Boice’s Lane onto Morton Boulevard.
• Widening Morton Boulevard.
• Restricting left turns from Boice’s Lane onto Elmwood Street, a short distance west of the crossing.
• Putting signs at the Stewart’s Shop at Boice’s and Morton to remind drivers that left turns from the store’s parking lot onto Boice’s Lane are prohibited.
• Creating pedestrian crosswalks across Boice’s at the Morton intersection and at the nearby plaza that formerly housed Office Dept, on the east side of the tracks.
• Expanding the turning lane on John M. Clark Drive.
• Creating pedestrian-crossing sidewalks over the railroad tracks.
Quigley said updated traffic figures have not been provided since the 2013 report found there were about 12,500 vehicles crossings per day at the railroad tracks, with traffic delayed between two and four minutes for each train. Officials said was an average of 30 freight trains per weekday and 26 trains per day on weekends.
The report also said that, between Jan. 1, 2008, and Sept. 21, 2012, there were 22 vehicle collisions at the Boice’s Lane/Morton Boulevard intersection and nine collisions at the Boice’s Lane/John M. Clark Drive intersection. During the same period, there were four accidents related to the railroad crossing gates, including two caused by gate violations.