(The following column by Mike Norman appeared on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on July 24, 2009.)
FORT WORH, Texas — I can see it now: Local officials and transportation planners will be fighting with Union Pacific for the next several years over how to build a trench near downtown Fort Worth. Will someone please spare us this misery?
Sure as the sun comes up, lawyers will make a lot of money and the rest of us will just be bored. People in Watauga and Keller and north Fort Worth who are just trying to drive to work or the grocery store will still endure endless waits for trains to clear crossings on major roads. Other transportation enhancements will be delayed while bureaucrats and hard-headed businesspeople argue.
It will be like Southwest Parkway, the 40-year-old freeway-turned-tollway idea that has yet to come to fruition, all over again. UP fought the city and transportation planners for 2 – 1/2 years over a crucial part of that one.
Here ‘s the current problem and my idea for avoiding a long fight:
Among railroad people, Tower 55 southeast of downtown Fort Worth is infamous. It ‘s named for the building that sits next to it, but it ‘s really an intersection of railroad tracks. Two tracks run north-south, two run east-west, and they meet at grade level. Clearly, a northbound or southbound train can ‘t go through that intersection at the same time as one that is eastbound or westbound.
Trains wait an average 90 minutes for their turn to go through, and the backup slows rail traffic across several states. Both sides to the dispute agree that this is a bad thing. It slows the wheels of commerce as well as blocking road crossings up the line.
There also is agreement on this point: The best way to fix the problem is to build a long trench so one set of tracks can travel under the other and no trains have to stop.
The disagreement: Local officials and transportation planners say the trench should run north-south, while Union Pacific wants it to run east-west.
Public meetings on the plans will be presented at noon and 5:30 p.m. Aug. 3 at the Intermodal Transportation Center, 1001 Jones St. in Fort Worth.
Back in January, when Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief and the City Council were congratulating themselves over finally reaching agreement with UP for a Southwest Parkway bridge over the company ‘s rail yard on the city ‘s west side, Moncrief gave some insight as to how that agreement came about.
“Once we stopped trying to out-lawyer each other, we finally were able to work something out together,” he said.
How about adopting that same attitude right away on the Tower 55 trench? Just skip over the lawyer part.
I believe that the railroad has the best argument. Its executives say the north-south trench would have to be built directly under the existing tracks, which you can ‘t do without halting rail traffic.
The east-west route would branch away from existing tracks between Summit Avenue on the west and Pine Street on the east. Local officials say that would require reconstruction of too many streets and historic bridges.
I say let UP have its preferred route, but get something in return. Make the railroad pay more of the cost. And get UP ‘s permission to someday install tracks for a commuter rail line on its right of way between Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas.
Be tough. Bargain hard. Stick with the north-south trench if the railroad won ‘t deal. But like Moncrief said, “Work something out together.”
(Mike Norman is the Star-Telegram /Eastern Tarrant County editorial director.)