The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday night shared more information about the railroad work that unexpectedly closed Main Street for much of the day last Friday. The road closure upset many downtown business owners.
On Wednesday evening last week, CSX discovered a break in the rail line where it crosses Main Street. The break caused an unsafe situation that required emergency repair. CSX notified the town on Thursday morning.
At first, the town thought they might be able to get away with just closing one lane on Main Street, but the break was in a 60-foot section of rail that spanned the street. That meant they needed to close down the whole road while they replaced the track.
Chairman Bill Boland said downtown business owners expressed concern about how the communication happened. Boland said they’re looking at the timeline of events to see how the process could be improved the next time something like this happens. “We can do better,” he said.
DPW Director Karen Galligan said the town made the best out of a bad situation by getting CSX to improve the railroad crossing as part of the work. The old timber crossing was removed and replaced by pavement.
Galligan sent along some pictures of the work.
As upset as some are, and I certainly understand, I am sure that the CSX folks didn’t realize the extent of the problem until real digging had begun. The real unfortunate thing here is that the Main Street crossing as well as the Central Street crossing have always left a bit to be desired as far as regular maintenance by the railroad goes. Let’s hope this repair lasts a while.