City and BMU partner to fix rail crossing

scottw@standard-democrat.com

Motorists traveling on North West Street in Sikeston will have to pick an alternate route to go around a construction site at a railroad crossing for a week but can look forward to a smoother crossing once work is done. (Photo by David Jenkins, Staff)

Motorists traveling on North West Street in Sikeston will have to pick an alternate route to go around a construction site at a railroad crossing for a week but can look forward to a smoother crossing once work is done. (Photo by David Jenkins, Staff)

SIKESTON -- One of the worst bumps on a Sikeston road will be smoothed out following an inconvenient week.

The rail crossing on North West Street will be closed for a week starting Monday for a joint reconstruction project between the Sikeston Board of Municipal Utilities and the city's Street Division.

"There have been a lot of complaints over the years with that being just a really rough spot in our system. The rail is really low -- as it sits right now, it is lower than the street level," Lancaster said. "BMU is going to be raising the rail there and the city is going to be replacing the approaches to the new rail and improve that crossing. It should be much easier to traverse."

While this project will fix a major issue for motorists, the project was proposed by BMU due to a maintenance issue with the tracks.

Rick Landers, assistant general manager at BMU, explained that the tracks at that crossing are a spur off Burlington Northern's tracks to bring coal to the Sikeston Power Plant.

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