Railroad crossing repair work to create detours

West Plains’ drivers may find they will be taking a little detour if their route takes them across the Palouse River Coulee City Railroad’s short-line tracks over the next three weeks.

The 6.9 mile portion of the track running from Cheney through Four Lakes and just past Craig Road is currently undergoing improvement work to increase its load capability to handle longer, 110-car trains loaded and assembled at the new Highline Grain, LLC’s transloader facility just west of Four Lakes on Medical Lake-Four Lakes Road. Part of that work involves upgrading rails and rail beds at seven area crossings, beginning Nov. 11 – 12 at Paradise Road just outside Cheney’s northern city limits and west of State Route 904.

According to information from the Washington State Department of Transportation, work will also take place Nov. 13 – 14 at the Jensen Road crossing just north of the Cheney Rodeo Grounds. Detours will be in place for drivers needing to use both roads, with closures lasting 24 hours a day. All lanes of SR 904 will be open.

WSDOT’s PRCC manager, Bob Westby, said other crossing closures are scheduled to take place over the next several weeks on the $7 million project. The Medical Lake-Four Lakes road crossing will be closed Nov. 17 – 18, followed by the Cheney-Spokane Road Nov. 17 – 19 and Meadow Lake Road Nov. 20 – 21.

Westby said the project’s contractor, RailWorks, has a “rather ambitious” schedule to get all crossings along the line completed by the end of November. Weather permitting the final crossing work will be at Craig Road Nov. 20 – 21 and White Road Nov. 23 – 24.

“That will take us right up to the Geiger Spur,” Westby said.

One crossing that will not need to be repaired is the one at SR 904 and Betz Road in Cheney. Westby said that the tracks there are capable of handling heavier loads after being upgraded during SR 904 repair work done over 10 years ago.

Westby said those dates could change depending on the holidays and, more importantly, the availability of asphalt. The contractor is under a tight timeline to complete the work in time for the grain transloader facility’s scheduled completion and opening in January 2016.

Westby said the line could still service the Highline terminal even if repair work to a couple crossings is delayed until spring.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].