[Durham INC] Thoughts on the Grade Separation Study

[Steve Schewel]

Dear INC Friends,
I had previously posted these comments on the ABCD listserv, and a couple
people suggested that I post it on the INC list as well. So here it is, and
I hope it's useful:

I wanted to add some information to Eric Heidt's good summary of where the
city council is on the grade separation study.

Norfolk-Southern is driving the process because it wants to move its
freight as quickly and safely as possible through Durham. The NC DOT study
calls for expenditures of more than $100 million over many years to
complete the grade separation changes that they envision. This includes
some street closings and various overpasses including their very bad idea
for a walled-off trench through downtown. This would divide downtown and
would be very unfriendly to pedestrian traffic.

In the long run, with the advent of a real mass transit rail system
connecting Durham to Raleigh and Chapel Hill, we will have many, many more
trains running through this same corridor--as many as 100 per day compared
to about 6 per day now. So it is also in the interest of Durham citizens to
have a decent plan for grade separation. Otherwise we will have continual
delays for cars and pedestrians wanting to cross the tracks. So while the
current N-S-driven plan isn't a good one, we do need to continue to pursue
this.

There is plenty of time to get this right. There is no funding on the
horizon for any of the overpasses.

There is also another important factor: I don't think Durham ought to agree
to anything that Norfolk-Southern wants in terms of the grade separation
until N-S comes to the table on some of the things that are important to
Durham which they have thus far stonewalled- -particularly the Duke
Beltline. This abandoned rail line through downtown could be an incredible
rails-to-trails asset for downtown and the whole city, and N-S has shown no
willingness to work with us on this. We currently have a $2.1 million
federal earmark acquired several years ago for the Beltline by Rep. David
Price. But N-S has recently raised the price for the Beltline to a
ridiculously high $7 million. If N-S wants the grade separations, they need
to work with us on the Beltline.

As Eric described, the council' s position on the grade separations now is
two-fold. On the one hand, we have not agreed to any street closings or to
any of the specific grade-separation plans presented to us by NC DOT. On
the other hand, we have asked for the Blackwell/Mangum grade crossing to be
"scored" by the NC DOT under Gov. McCrory' s new transportation funding
system. It's complicated, but suffice it to say that there is a "statewide
pot" of money which funds freight corridors that might get this first--and
most important--grade separation off the ground, and it's worth getting
that into the funding queue now. This is a years-long process. This does
not in any way include the endorsement of the DOT's lousy design for that
grade crossing.

Maybe this is too much detail, but suffice it to say that the council wants
N-S to come to the table to talk about the Beltline along with grade
separation; that the council has not agreed to or even considered any
street closings or specific grade crossing designs; and that the council is
at the same time interested in getting this corridor, including the grade
separations, improved because of the long-term needs for mass passenger
transit through this corridor, and to that end we are getting the most
important grade crossing into the state DOT "scoring" queue.

Probably more than you wanted to know.

Best wishes,
Steve Schewel
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