Story and photos by Austin Williams
The City of Centralia held a public meeting Friday to discuss its application for a Railroad Crossing Elimination (RCE) Grant. Mitch Hardiek with Milano and Grunloh Engineers gave an overview of the Railroad Crossing Elimination grant and why the city was applying for it.
Centralia is currently developing plans for a double overpass project to eliminate the railroad crossings on South Elm Street and South Poplar Street. The goal of this project is to improve traffic flow by ensuring traffic, including emergency vehicles, isn’t held up for extended periods waiting for trains to pass. Centralia has previously completed a railroad consolidation feasibility study for tract 1 planning of the project. Grant funding, if received, will cover most of the phase 1 engineering costs; the application is for $1,120,960 with a local match of $280,240 to pay the total cost of $1,401,200.
According to Hardiek, the construction phase of the project won’t begin for several years.
“We’ve got to get the planning first. Let’s say the city is awarded the planning grant, we assume we can get the preliminary engineering done within a two-year process… hopefully, within that timeline, we can get that done and apply for construction in 2026,” said Hardiek. “It will vary if we can apply in September 2026 for construction or September 2027… Let’s say it goes back to 2027 to apply for construction and final design, then you’re looking at that award, then we have to do our final design, construction, maybe have a bid out by the end of 2028, beginning of 2029, for construction maybe in 2030.”
The total cost of the overpass project is currently projected at over 34 million dollars, according to current plans and estimates. The city of Centralia will seek to cover as much of that cost as possible with grant funding. Several members of the public expressed support for the project, but one, retired traffic specialist Mike Musick, claimed the double overpass was unnecessarily expensive.
“We’re building the Taj Mahal,” Musick said. “51 does not have that much traffic… it simply does not have the justification for the kind of construction we’re talking about here.”
There was debate over how effective an alternative solution such as widening a speed-restricted rail curve to allow trains to move faster, would reduce the problem of traffic stalling at the crossings. Another member of the public in attendance countered that even if the time the road spent blocked by trains was reduced by half, it still wouldn’t solve the problem of emergency vehicles being potentially held up for several minutes at the crossings.
Hardiek noted that while the double overpass is the current plan, it is not necessarily what the city will end up building. The preliminary design is being used as part of the grant application, but as planning continues the design is subject to change to suit the city’s needs.
As part of building the overpasses, the city will need to acquire property adjacent to the project for right of way, purchasing the homes of current residents.
Overpass diagram presented at the Friday meeting.
