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The Mississippi Department of Transportation is launching a pilot program aimed at making railroad crossings safer for commercial vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Long Beach, Mississippi will serve as the testing ground for MDOT\u2019s railroad crossing improvement program. Nine of the ten railroad crossings in the city will undergo safety upgrades. Two of these crossings will soon be flattened as part of a dedicated truck route, and the remaining seven will be gradually modified to be more level, reported WLOX<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cLong Beach was picked as the pilot mostly because of the number of crossings,\u201d said MDOT Director of Aeronautics and Rails Josh Stubbs. \u201cThey also had some issues with some of their crossings, but with only 10 crossings that\u2019s kind of a good number to kind of figure out the hurdles, hangups and figure out how this is actually going to work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The project is estimated to cost $3 million and will begin on March 3rd. Officials estimate improving the entire state\u2019s railroad crossings could cost $85 million and take 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSomething we can do is, or something we can help with, is signage \u2014 so providing things like low-ground clearance signs and giving drivers at least the information they need to make a decision,\u201d Stubbs said. \u201cBut solving them and actually raising them is not something that happens overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA conversation we\u2019ve had to have with the railroad is if we\u2019re coming in and making these improvements, we\u2019d really like for you to try not to raise the tracks,\u201d Stubbs said. \u201cWe understand the railroad track has to be maintained, but we would really like for them to be aware of what we are doing and anything that they can do to keep crossings from being elevated each time would be super helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n