SPRINGDALE — The City Council will vote Tuesday to fix a worn spot in the road.
The city will work with the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad to replace the track crossing on East Mountain Road. The cost of the project is estimated at $69,841, with both railroad and city crews providing the labor.
City Council member Mark Fougerousse for several months has pushed to repair the crossing. He said Thursday the wooden railroad ties are completely degraded with spikes that hold them in place sticking up about 2 inches.
“You can’t believe the number of people who have told me about damage to their tires and shocks,” Fougerousse said.
The railroad crossing is in the city’s voting Ward 4, the northeastern part of the city, where Fougerousse lives and serves.
A traffic count map on the website of the Arkansas Department of Transportation records 45,000 vehicles a day using the crossing. The crossing is in an industrial area, but also provides access to several subdivisions and a large apartment complex, Fougerousse said.
Terry Anderson, construction superintendent with the city’s Public Works Department, said work on the crossing will be scheduled after the council votes. The project will be similar to the improvement of the crossing on East Huntsville Avenue, which was replaced over six days in July.
The Mountain crossing goes over a two-lane road rather than the four-lane divided Huntsville Avenue, so officials expect a shorter period of road closure.
Jeromy Houchin, chief engineer for the railroad, said he expects the work to be completed by the end of October. The railroad crew will install the plates and the city crew will rebuild the approaches to the crossing, he said.
Houchin said the railroad crews will remove the crossing and replace the rock, ties, rails and concrete panels. He said all materials for the project are in stock at the railyard.
The city and railroad in October reached an agreement that opened a railroad crossing on Maple Avenue. The city agreed to pay $3 million over the next six years to improve railroad crossings in the city.
The Mountain crossing would be the second improved under the agreement, with the city spending $290,167 on Huntsville.
Laurinda Joenks can be reached by email at joenks@nwaonline. com or on Twitter @NWALaurinda.