By Gina Long
I apologize to those who have been forced to wait while I am invariably stuck at a train crossing, a more common phenomenon as the sleeping prairies awaken and we barrel into harvest.
Hutchinson’s lack of central overpasses contributes to the problem, and the Woodie Seat Freeway overpass demolition will soon lead to more congestion just off Main Street.
Most trains move along at a decent clip but not at full speed due to the numerous crossings, curves and the urban setting.
Some trains, however, screech to a halt, cutting Hutchinson in half for over a mile as train length continues to increase. Due to the laws of physics, trains take a long time and distance to stop and even longer to restart, which means a lengthy delay at crossings.
The city’s west side has two options: the Fourth Street bridge over Monroe Street to the K-14 highway.
The east side relies on K-61’s and Airport Road’s overpasses to overcome the barrier.
With the February gas explosion along South Main Street and the corridor’s six-week closure overlapping with the closure and demolition of the Woodie Seat overpass, I have often wondered how emergency vehicles navigate over the tracks when a long train is blocking multiple crossings and how that figures into response times.
The Hutchinson Fire Department has a station on Avenue E, allowing some trucks to arrive quickly even if backup units are delayed.
The Hutchinson Police Department has units constantly on patrol around town, which presumably only affects backup units’ response times.
My concern lies with ambulance response times. The Reno County Health Department on West Second Avenue is planning an expansion, displacing the existing ambulance bay. The plan is to move the ambulance station to West Fifth Avenue, south of Dillon’s. The relocation will place ambulance services closer to calls on the city’s west side, leaving the south side vulnerable to blocked train crossings.
The easiest solution would be to build a centrally-located overpass. However, finding a good location, purchasing property and building the structure would be cost-prohibitive for the City of Hutchinson, which is already dealing with repairing and placing aging water and sewer lines.
Train traffic is vital to the area’s and the nation’s economic health, and the current track routes support our salt mining, manufacturing and agricultural industries. We cannot simply ask the railroad companies to uproot and relocate the tracks, so we make do.
The train has passed, the lights are no longer flashing, the cross-arms are rising, and the dog is excited to go to the park.
Dogs don’t care if they’re late.
