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Contact: Stu Nicholson
(614) 644-0513
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: March 3, 2005
Arena District Gets Safer Crossing
Marconi Blvd Pedestrian Crossing To
Get Lights and Gates
(Columbus) – It won’t revive the NHL season for the Columbus Blue Jackets, but by the time they make the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2006 (we hope), hockey fans, downtown workers and Arena District residents will have a new, safer pedestrian crossing at the former Marconi Boulevard crossing.
In cooperation with Nationwide Real Estate and the Norfolk-Southern Railroad (NS), the Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) has worked out an agreement to begin engineering work to install a new pedestrian crossing with state-of-the-art lights and gates, wayside warning horns and/or video monitoring devices and a paved surface. Nationwide has also agreed to construct both fences and landscaping that will channel pedestrians into the crossing and prevent people from going around the lights and gates when a train is approaching.
Normally, a project of this type averages one year to complete, but the NS railroad has agreed to make every effort to have the installation completed within nine months. ORDC has asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to issue a work order for this project.
The Marconi crossing once carried vehicular traffic, but was closed to vehicles in 2003 as part of the Arena District development project. It has remained as a pedestrian crossing with only cross-bucks and warning lights since that time, and is heavily traveled by both pedestrians and trains. Though there has never been a pedestrian-train accident at this crossing, concern for pedestrian safety has led to this agreement.
(The Ohio Rail Development Commission is an independent agency operating within the Ohio Department of Transportation. ORDC is responsible for economic development through the improvement and expansion of passenger and freight rail service, railroad grade crossing safety and rail travel & tourism issues. For more information about what ORDC does for Ohio, visit our website at http://www.dot.state.oh.us/ohiorail/ )