Councillor says railway underpasses, overpasses aren't realistic options

A local councillor says underpasses and overpasses aren’ t feasible options when it comes to solving Lac La Biche’ s railway woes.

As nice as it would be to never have to wait for a passing train again, councillor John Nowak says the county isn’ t in a position to build roads above or underneath the rail line.

“Underpasses and overpasses are in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to construct,” Nowak said, adding that existing crossings also don’ t leave a lot of room for large-scale building projects. “If you look at the topography and the proximity to existing buildings, it just would not work.”

Instead, another at-grade crossing in Lac La Biche is the way to go, he says-but first, CN needs to agree to it.

There have been meetings between the county and the rail transportation giant, and CN hasn’ t opposed the idea of another crossing. In early 2014, councillors met with one of the company’ s senior executives and discussed that very thing.

“He did seem open to the idea, so long as it’ s not at the expense of CN and if it made sense as far as their operations are concerned,” said Nowak.

The municipality might have to foot the bill, but it shouldn’ t be too onerous, logistically or financially, he says.

“If you look at some the intersections in downtown, there’ s not a lot of work that needs to be done to get to the other side,” he said. “I think, at the end of the day, the cost wouldn’ t be that astronomical.”

One thing that’ s impossible at this point is the thing that would probably please residents the most: relocating the rail line altogether.

If the county were to undertake that project, then the full burden of costs and work would rest on the municipality’ s shoulders, and CN has no reason to allow it anyway, according to Nowak.

“A lot of the people I’ ve spoken to would like the tracks removed and placed further out of town but that’ s not realistic, from an infrastructure standpoint or from a cost standpoint,” he said. “We as a municipality aren’ t going to bear that burden on our own.”

Building another crossing looks promising, so county officials are trying to arrange another meeting with CN to see if an acceptable compromise exists.

“We have to see what, to them, makes sense and find out if that works for us,” Nowak said. “We need some open dialogue with CN...at the same time, understanding that CN has crossings in the neighbourhood of 2,000 communities throughout Canada, and anything they might agree to here could be precedent-setting for them.”

So far, a formal meeting hasn’ t been scheduled yet.