SPRINGDALE -- The railroad crossing on Huntsville Avenue will be closed for five days starting Friday while the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad and the city replace it.
The crossing should reopen by July 20, said James Smith, director of the city's Public Works Department.
Eastbound traffic will be rerouted to Emma Avenue from Shiloh Street, Smith said. Traffic going west will be rerouted from Berry Street to Water Street to Emma.
Tractor-trailers are asked to use state highways, he said.
The Public Works Department already has placed signs at the crossing to alert drivers, Smith said.
The City Council on June 28 approved spending $290,167 to repair the road on either side of the crossing. The money will come from undesignated money in the city's general fund.
The Public Works Department will replace the asphalt road on both sides of the tracks up to concrete panels that hold the tracks, Smith said.
The Arkansas & Missouri Railroad, which owns the tracks, will upgrade the area within the railroad's right of way, said Ron Sparks, the railroad's chief of police.
The improvements are the first in an agreement between the city and the railroad to improve dangerous railroad-street crossings in the city, said Ernest Cate, city attorney. The council in October approved $3 million of work over the next six years.
City officials focused on the Huntsville crossing for the first repairs because the crossing receives more traffic than most in the city, Cate said. About 20,000 vehicles cross the tracks on Huntsville each day, according to traffic counts by the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
It's also the crossing about which city officials hear the most concern, he said.
A city map shows 14 railroad crossings with the A&M railroad.