No relief for Fort Collins train delays until 2016

Motorists frustrated with traffic delays caused by railroad switching operations in east Fort Collins are not likely to experience relief until next year.

Completion of a 14-month project to rebuild the Mulberry Street Bridge across the Poudre River is critical for city officials to launch programs aimed at clearing traffic congestion brought on by trains blocking major streets along the Riverside Avenue corridor, including Mulberry, Lemay Avenue and Prospect Road.

With so many vehicles detoured to Riverside Avenue because of the bridge project, Fort Collins Traffic Operations has limited options for adjusting the timing of signals at intersections to get traffic moving after a blockage, said Joe Olson, city traffic engineer.

Giving extra time to clear out vehicles backed up in any direction at the intersection of Lemay and Riverside increases waits for traffic headed other directions, Olson told the Coloradoan.

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There is so much congestion at the intersection, Olson said he has “no green time to trade around.”

“If I take more time from them, I’m going to make an even bigger mess there,” he said.

The bridge project by the Colorado Department of Transportation, or CDOT, is scheduled to be done around the end of November. Currently, only the westbound portion of the bridge is open to vehicle traffic.

The year-long detour of eastbound traffic is expected to be removed in mid-October, said Jared Fiel, a CDOT spokesman. Intermittent lane closures on Mulberry Street, which is also Colorado Highway 14, are likely until the project is complete.

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Once traffic patterns in the area return to “normal,” city officials plan to implement a program that will automatically adjust traffic signal timing to clear backups caused by trains along the Riverside Avenue corridor. Sensors in the pavement will detect when and where backups occur and signal computers running the city’s traffic control system to adjust.

The traffic response program is expected to start in the first quarter of 2016, Olson said. By the second quarter, a message board that would warn motorists of train blockages and other traffic issues along the corridor is expected to be installed as part of a pilot project.

The location of the first of what could be several message boards has not been determined, Olson said, although it likely will be on Lemay Avenue. The sign would provide real-time information to travelers about traffic so they can adjust accordingly and take alternative routes.

Long-distance fix

Train delays are a sore spot for Fort Collins residents, as evidenced by the response to a survey done as part of a city study of traffic impacts from railroad switching operations along the Riverside Avenue corridor.

More than 5,000 people participated in the online survey. Nearly 100 percent reported experiencing delays because of train switching.

About 70 percent of respondents reported experiencing delays of 15 to 45 minutes, said Rick Richter, director of infrastructure for the city, and 90 percent said they had been late to work or appointments because of train delays.

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Major traffic impacts can occur whenever a train blocks Lemay Avenue near Riverside Avenue, an event that happens an average of 10 times a day.

“It’s not just the location of the blockage, but it radiates through the city and affects other traffic patterns,” Richter told City Council members last week.

The Union Pacific and Great Western railroad companies use a switch along Riverside Avenue to hand off blocks of cars to each other. The cars are headed for customers in Fort Collins, Windsor and other locations.

The companies are working on a joint capital project in Greeley that is expected to result in more switching being done at the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor, Sarah Thompson Cassidy, public affairs director for Union Pacific, told the council.

Construction in Greeley is underway. The $20 million project is expected to be completed by early next year, Cassidy said. When it will be operational is not clear.

Cassidy would not predict how the project might affect the number of trains coming into Fort Collins or whether it would alleviate or eliminate train issues in the city. Much depends on the needs of customers served by the railroads.

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Trains stop, and sometimes block roads, for a variety of reasons, she said. Sometimes, crews are required by federal safety regulations to walk the length of a train to inspect brake-system connections. Crews try to limit the amount of time a trains “dwells,” or stands still across a roadway, to 10 minutes, she said.

Having a train stopped on a street is a safety risk to crew members as well as an irritant for motorists, she said.

“That’s not ideal of anyone,” Cassidy said. “It’s not as if that’s a staging location for us … It is not in our operating plans to dwell in a crossing for a long period of time.”

Keeping trains moving is in the best interests of the railroads, she said.

Looking for solutions

Fort Collins officials plan to finish their study on railroad switching activity and its impacts on traffic by the end of the year. Then they will implement the program for moving out traffic after a train blockage and monitor its effectiveness and that of the message board pilot program.

The impact of the railroad companies’ Greeley switch project on the number of trains coming into Fort Collins also will be monitored, Olson said.

Additional solutions to the train-blockage problems will be considered, including the possibilities for building overpasses at major roads and intersections, Richter said.

Building a single overpass would cost about $30 million. Finding the money for one or more projects of that size might require going to city voters to get tax support or developing a long-range financing plan, City Manager Darin Atteberry told council members.

“I know for a fact we could not pay for this type of project out of cash reserves,” he said. “That’s not possible.”

Kevin Duggan is a Coloradoan senior reporter covering local government. Follow him on Twitter, @coloradoan_dugg.

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By the numbers

For the intersection of Lemay and Riverside avenues:

10 – Average daily train crossings in 2007 and 2014

29 – Most train crossings recorded in one day, on Dec. 12, 2014

30 to 60 seconds – Most common length of a delay in 2007

1 to 3 minutes – Most common length of a delay in 2014

125 – Delays lasting between 5 and 10 minutes in 2014

50 – Delays lasting 10 to 15 minutes in 2014

2 hours, 8 minutes – Longest recorded delay in 2014, overnight on Nov. 24-25

Source: City of Fort Collins