3 November 2008
Village, CP Consider Pedestrian Underpass
Ashcroft British Columbia - CP Rail has abandoned its
plans for an overpass in Ashcroft and is now looking at a pedestrian-only underpass.
It has been a year since CP proposed an overpass to carry traffic from Hwy 97C south to Railway Ave.
In the meantime, CP Rail has't been moving as many trains through Ashcroft to help alleviate the problem of long traffic holdups at the
crossings through town, manager Rick Poznikoff told Ashcroft Council last week.
He said CP Rail will pay to install a new 10,000-foot siding from Hwy 97C east to their switch at Richie. In addition,
they would like to close the crossing by the cemetery and build the pedestrian underpass in the vicinity of the new recycling depot.
He reminded Council that "pine beetle" funding through Western Diversification will expire in the early Spring and that they
needed to act soon to see if the $5 million grade separation funding was still available.
Poznikoff said they were hoping to complete the underpass by late 2009, but it would more likely be 2010.
The cemetery crossing would have locked gates to prevent traffic from using it, but local emergency services would have keys to unlock
them if they had to.
Poznikoff told Council that the company would need their approval to close the crossing.
"It's great to see that there are other options," said Coun. Jackie Tegart, "and that you're willing to work with the
Village."
Council asked staff to outline the process they needed to follow to close the crossing.
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