City of Lockport issued the following announcement on Feb. 15.
The City of Lockport has 11 rail road crossings, 9 on the CN line and 2 along the BNSF line. In recent months, the CN crossing signals in particular, at 9th Street just before the Des Plaines High Level Bridge in Downtown Lockport near State Street have been experiencing malfunctions more often than usual.
The City of Lockport has no jurisdiction to make any improvements to CN rail lines. However Lockport has been awarded over $1M in grant monies from IDOT Section 130 funds, utilizing Federal dollars from the Fixing America’s Surface Transportations Act (FAST) to assist in safety measures for CN crossings at 13th, 9th and 8th Streets.
Lockport, CN, IDOT, ICC and Metra have all been coordinating recently to not only increase rail safety measures throughout several Lockport rail crossings, but also in particular the 9th Street Crossing, since the traffic congestion backs up on not just one, but two State Routes affecting local businesses and commerce in the region.
Today, Illinois Senator Mike Hastings of the 19th District, joined Lockport Mayor Steve Streit in a meeting to assist safety concerns on the CN rail line. Recent incidents in Mokena weigh heavily on the minds of each resident that lives and travels along the rail lines of every community of Will County.
Senator Hastings has invited Mayor Streit to Springfield next week to attend meetings with CN and IDOT to further evaluate what can be achieved to ensure more safety measures are to be implemented as soon as possible, as Lockport potentially could be awarded additional FAST funds to utilize towards implementing new designs for added crossing safety at 9th, 10th, 11th and Division Street Crossings.
Lockport officials remain committed to rail safety and would like to thank Senator Mike Hastings, Senator Pat McGuire and House Representative John Conner for their support on legislative initiatives that can bring safety measures to rail crossings throughout Will County.
Original source can be found here.
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