Springdale and Fayetteville will receive up to $576,000 through the federal Railroad Crossing Elimination Program to cover 80% of the cost of a crossing safety study along the Northwest Arkansas rail corridor, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The study, which will examine eight crossings owned by the Springdale-based Arkansas and Missouri Railroad along a 14-mile-long section of track between the two cities, aims to determine what safety improvements should be pursued at each crossing, according to a news release issued Monday by the agency's Federal Railroad Administration.
The project is one of 63 in 32 states announced on Monday that are intended to reduce crashes between trains and vehicles, as well as reduce blocked rail crossings.
"This is the first time since I've been here that we've had the opportunity to look at safety issues with the railroad," said Patsy Christie, Springdale's planning director.
In Springdale, the study will scrutinize crossings at four sites:
Randalle-Wobbe Lane
Sunset Avenue
Apple Blossom Avenue
Shady Grove Road
Christie said the crossings currently don't have any safety features, such as signals or "grade separation" -- often overpasses or underpasses that remove traffic from the crossings.
"This study will let us look at design alternatives and figure out how we can move forward on trying to do some implementation," she said.
Terry Gulley, with the Fayetteville's Transportation Division, said Monday he didn't know enough to speak about the grant nor what crossings would be studied.
The two cities, which were notified of the grant award last week, agreed to pay 20% of the study's $720,000 total cost, according to Christie. Springdale will pay $81,000, or roughly 11%, while Fayetteville will come up with $62,000, or about 9%, Christie said. Such funds are usually reimbursable by the federal government, according to the planning director.
Now that the funding has been announced, the cities will have to identify the firm or firms that will conduct the study. Christie said that it is too early to guess when the study will be complete.
Once finished, however, Springdale may apply for additional federal funds to implement recommended safety upgrades, the planning director said.
A Federal Railroad Administration dashboard lists only four highway-rail incidents in Arkansas that involve A&M during 2022, the most recent year for which data are available. None of incidents resulted in any serious injuries, though each involved a vehicle that had stopped on the crossing or "stopped and then proceeded," according to the dashboard.
In total, A&M operates a 150-mile route from Monette, Mo. to Fort Smith, according to its website.
In Fayetteville, Assistant Fire Chief Thomas Good said that most of the "bad accidents" in the city that involved trains were at crossings where there were no lights and gates. However, he added that those happen infrequently nowadays, as trains generally move at about 15 mph as they come through town.
"The train moves so slow through these cities that we just don't have a whole lot of them," he said. "They're moving slow and they're loud."
Good reminded residents to continue being aware of their surroundings, though. Despite not being able to recall any recent deaths in Fayetteville that involved a train, he said, they can still do "a lot of damage."
Information for this story was contributed by Maggie Green of the NWA Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.