(The following article appeared on The Arizona Republic website on April 10.)
TUCSON, Ariz. — As Union Pacific rapidly lays its second, parallel track across the southwest Phoenix area and southern Arizona, state officials are raising concern that more than 50 planned road crossings need to be safer.
The Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees rail-safety issues in the state, has scheduled a special public hearing Thursday to examine the issue.
Because of a boom in business, primarily from Chinese companies shipping containers from the West Coast throughout the United States, Union Pacific’s rail traffic across the state has soared during the past five years. The railroad company also wants to build a large rail-switching yard near Picacho Peak and has been in talks with the State Land Department about acquiring land for that project.
Commissioners Kris Mayes and Bill Mundell say the railroad is in for some tough discussions on the subject of trying to complete the rail across the state, since the commission must approve the design of rail crossings.
“We really need to slow this train down and understand which of these crossings need to have overpasses and underpasses,” Mayes said. “We are going to be asking for future projected traffic counts from the road authorities in all these crossing areas.”
Mundell said taxpayers could be spared millions of dollars in future spending “if safe crossings are constructed now rather than later.”
In a letter to the commission, Chris Peterson, director of government affairs for Union Pacific, wrote that all of the at-grade crossings will have gates and lights and that the company expects to spend about $16 million on that end of the project. Peterson also wrote that the company plans to spend $2.5 million on concrete upgrades at the crossings and that other safety features are being considered.
“I find it very surprising that UP has no plans to do anything but lights and gates,” Mayes said. “This will undergo a lot of scrutiny, and we will be looking at each of these crossings, one by one.”
Another big issue is who will pay for overpasses and underpasses. In the past, the cost burden has fallen on Arizona towns to pay 95 percent of construction projects and Union Pacific only 5 percent.
Other states like California and Illinois now require that the railroad pay half or more of such projects when public-safety issues are paramount, according to Corporation Commission documents.
“This has to change here,” Mundell said. “The citizens of Arizona should not be having to foot nearly the entire bill for private enterprise when they should be paying a great deal of it themselves. We need a legislative remedy.”