A railroad crossing in Ashdown, recently labeled by the Federal Railroad Administration as one of the nation's most dangerous, is one of two crossings in the Little River County seat that is targeted for safety improvements.
The improvements are the product of a long-running study by the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department of the city's railroad crossings, which totaled nine at one time.
The Federal Railroad Administration ranked more than 200,000 crossings based upon the number of accidents, injuries and fatalities. Four crossings in Phoenix -- all within 2 miles of one another -- are considered four of the worst five in the country.
The agency ranked the crossing on South Park Avenue off U.S. 71 in Ashdown as the fourth most dangerous in the United States for crashes. With no guards or warning devices, the crossing has seen four fatalities, four injuries and 16 wrecks since 2006, the the report says.
The railroad agency said there were 244 fatalities at train crossings in 2015, down from 264 in 2014.
The state Highway and Transportation Department, which lists the same crossing as at Front Street and U.S. 71, counted 18 crashes, including three fatal crashes and five injury crashes, between 2011 and 2016. Motorists traverse two sets of tracks at the crossing.
The crossing is at the confluence of Front, South Park and East Locke streets on the west side of U.S. 71.
More than two dozen trains, mostly belonging to the Kansas City Southern Railway Co., daily travel through Ashdown, population 4,723, according to the Highway Department.
A statement from the railroad on Wednesday said the company wasn't aware of the Highway Department's study, but it said that "for many years, [the railroad] has been working with City of Ashdown and State of Arkansas officials on improving highway-rail grade crossings in Ashdown."
In its study, the Highway Department acknowledged the years it has spent working with the railroad and with Ashdown officials on improving the crossings, which have some of the highest hazard ratings of the 2,794 crossings in Arkansas in which the intersection of the road and the tracks are on the same level as opposed to rail crossings that employ bridges to separate vehicle and train traffic.
Of the nine original at-grade crossings in Ashdown that existed when the state Highway Commission issued a minute order authorizing the study in 2008, six were public crossings and three were private crossings within the Domtar mill property in Ashdown.
The minute order came at a time when Kansas City Southern indicated its need to increase train speed, frequency of train movements and length of trains.
Domtar, which has about 1,300 trucks accessing its paper mill daily, expressed concerns about delays and safety for the mill's employees, suppliers and vendors stacking up along U.S. 71 while trains blocked roadways. The most common type of crash at the Domtar crossing, according to the study, was a train striking a vehicle that was in a line on the tracks.
In 2012, the railroad and Domtar agreed to pay for improvements at the Domtar crossings. They included closing the old primary Domtar entrance and crossing, construction of a new access road from Domtar to Arkansas 32 for trucks and making signal improvements to U.S. 71 and the railroad crossing at the third entrance, making it the primary entrance to accommodate 2,500 vehicles daily.
Meanwhile, Ashdown officials were expressing concern about the crossings in town. Five of the six crossings in the city had no lights or gates. The Arkansas 32B/Main Street crossing is the only public crossing with lights and gates.
But the study said a fix wasn't as simple as closing one or more crossings.
"Closing or improving the crossing at Front Street alone would likely encourage drivers to use nearby crossings, thus potentially increasing crashes at some or all of the other crossings," according to the study.
The railroad and the department initially proposed improvements at three crossings of Ashdown's choosing and closing two of the five crossings lacking lights and gates.
Instead, the department, the railroad and the city agreed to provide flashing lights and gates at the crossings at Front Street and at Whittaker Street. The improvements also would include the installation of a traffic signal at Front Street and U.S. 71.
"We anticipate that the flashers and gates will be installed on both of these crossings in early Fall," the railroad said in its statement.
The state Highway and Transportation Department doesn't anticipate the traffic signal being installed before the first of next year, said Danny Straessle, an agency spokesman.
The Whittaker Street lights and gates are being paid for with Federal Railroad Administration safety funds, he said. The Front Street improvements will be installed with a mix of Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Highway Administration safety funding.
Metro on 07/14/2016