Olathe is reexamining its options for addressing the street-level railroad crossings that remain on the city’s western side; however, there’s still no clear cut solution.
Currently, there are more than a dozen different possible project ideas to address one or more specific at-grade crossing in western Olathe. Those all vary widely in scope and estimated price tag, and most come with a significant number of drawbacks.
This week, during a presentation to the Olathe City Council, City Engineer Nate Baldwin said the city and BNSF together are now pursuing a grant through the federal Railroad Crossing Elimination Program that could help cover the cost of planning any work to address at-grade crossings.
Olathe has eight at-grade railroad crossings
- An at-grade railroad crossing occurs when the train tracks and vehicle traffic cross at the same level.
- About 88 trains pass through western Olathe a day, and the city has a total of eight at-grade crossings.
- Whenever a train is passing at those crossings, all through traffic is halted, posing a “reliable travel time” issue, Baldwin said.
- He said the average wait time for a train to pass is four minutes, though there are times when it takes much longer.
- “If the train is not there, it’s no big deal, right? But you never know when the train is going to be there,” Baldwin said.
Olathe has been studying the issue for years
- About 20 years ago, Olathe spent just shy of $45 million separating the at-grade crossings on the eastern side of the city, ultimately raising the train tracks.
- Around the same time, Olathe started studying doing the same or something similar on the western side.
- However, an estimate in 2004 from the firm TranSystems put the project cost estimate at $125 million.
- A 2019 reexamination of the study raised the cost projection to more than $220 million.
Santa Fe Street railroad crossing is of particular interest
Of the eight at-grade crossings in Olathe, the crossing at Santa Fe Street near Kansas Avenue at the threshold to the downtown core is one of the more important, Baldwin said. He called it a “number 1, high priority.”
Any project addressing these crossings would likely touch this crossing at Santa Fe specifically or offer an alternative to draw traffic off of Santa Fe.
Of the possibilities Baldwin discussed on Tuesday, many pertain directly to the Santa Fe crossing. That included:
- A $45 million project realigning Santa Fe and lowering it under the railroad
- Two separate proposals for raising Santa Fe over the railroad
- One alternative for lowering Santa Fe under the railroad
Olathe could widen, raise Spruce Street underpass
Today, Spruce Street goes under the railroad, though the railroad bridge clearance is on the shorter side at under 12 feet, and trucks get stuck under it a few times a year. Spruce is also just a two-lane road.
Still, a lot of motorists use Spruce as an alternate route if they see a train stopping traffic on Santa Fe, and Baldwin said it is a “great cut around.”
Olathe has considered in the past widening Spruce between Kansas Highway 7 and Kansas Avenue to be a four-lane arterial. That project — listed in the capital improvement plan for $1.5 million in preliminary engineering costs next year — would also likely see Spruce lowered even further below the railroad.
Baldwin said the city could also consider putting some kind of advanced warning system in place to alert traffic if a train is on Santa Fe and instruct them to use Spruce instead, making it an official alternative.
Next steps:
- Initially, Olathe had expected to be studying railroad crossing separation during this calendar year, placing about $500,000 in the capital improvement plan for preliminary engineering.
- However, now that the city and railroad company are pursuing the federal grant funds for the study instead, the timeline is likely to be slowed down, Baldwin said.
- From there, if Olathe does get the grant, a study could take an additional 12 months to complete.
- So, when a solution could be recommended, approved, designed and implemented is unclear.
- That being said, Baldwin was pretty clear the city has no intention of shelving this project for another 15 or 20 years.
- “I think we’re going to decide ‘OK, what one of these projects do we want to move forward with next?’” he said.
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