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Thedford's "stimulus" project

Sandhusker

Well-known member
WASHINGTON — A lot of people around Thedford, Neb., are shaking their heads about the big construction project east of town funded with $7 million in federal stimulus cash.

It's one of Nebraska's earliest and largest road projects under the Obama administration's $787 billion economic recovery plan.

Nebraska roads officials say building the U.S. Highway 83 viaduct over BNSF Railway tracks is downright necessary for public safety.

Downright crazy, say those who have encountered the sometimes 20-second wait for a train to pass. They say it isn't as if cars and trucks stack up at the crossing outside the Thomas County village of Thedford, population 168.

“It's a waste of money,” said Carolyn Warren, whose family owns a small trucking operation in Thedford.

About 1,275 vehicles per day rattle over the train tracks in question. That may sound like a lot, but consider that Interstate 80 at 42nd Street in Omaha averaged 165,000 vehicles a day last year.

The Cornhusker Highway viaduct over the train tracks near 70th Street in Lincoln handles about 14,000 vehicles a day, and Omaha's L Street carries about 23,000 a day over tracks near South 28th Street.

Safety is the most frequently cited reason for the viaduct, but the Federal Railroad Administration has no reports of any accidents at the Thedford crossing. The agency's records go back to 1975.

Although Uncle Sam cuts the checks, choosing roads projects for stimulus funding is largely up to state governments.

Officials with the Nebraska Department of Roads defended the decision to direct stimulus money to the Thedford viaduct.

Thedford's tiny population is beside the point, they said. Highway 83 serves as the main route between North Platte and Valentine, and a train derailment or track maintenance could shut down the crossing for an extended period of time, they said. Other north-south routes are at least 25 miles down the road.

The department does not have records of when the Thedford train crossing has been forced to close in the past, but spokeswoman Mary Jo Oie said the railroad plans to shut it down for a while this month for repairs, and that it will be shut down at least every two years for routine maintenance.

Monty Fredrickson, director of the Nebraska Roads Department, said the viaduct was a project that could be started immediately because it enjoyed the support of the local community.

But checks with people in Thedford revealed a great deal of opposition.

Judy Taylor, chairwoman of the Village Board, said that most people in town were against the viaduct.

Janice Hodges, whose family owns the Conoco gas station near the viaduct, said: “We didn't really think we needed it.”

On the other side of the matter, Steve Brown of the Thedford Community Development Group said that he has favored the project because traffic along Highway 83 will only increase.

He said the crossing is used frequently by trucks with oversize loads, such as wind turbines.

“It's just amazing that an accident has not happened there,” Brown said. “It (the viaduct) probably is justified.”

Still, a look at the state's own criteria raises questions. A primary factor used to prioritize Nebraska railroad viaduct projects is the intersection's “exposure,” which is determined by multiplying the daily averages for vehicles on the road and trains on the track.

The Thedford project has an exposure of 102,000. That number comes from the state's average daily traffic count on the highway of 1,275 multiplied by 80 trains a day.

BNSF Railway Co. spokesman Steven Forsberg said that 57 to 69 trains per day have been traveling through that intersection during the first four months of 2009. When told the state was using the higher number in its calculations, Forsberg said that train volume fluctuates with the economy, and that the railroad supports the project for safety reasons.

Even at 102,000, the Thedford project has the second-smallest exposure among the seven viaducts that the state has constructed in the past five years.

Nebraska roads officials said Thedford still has more than twice the 50,000 exposure that the state uses as a minimum threshold for such a viaduct.

“It's a project that qualifies under our rules and regs, and it's a good project. It eliminates a lot of exposure and it provides some tremendous continuity to our highway system,” said Ellis Tompkins, rail and public transportation engineer with the roads department.

State officials also cited the crossing's proximity to the T-intersection where 83 meets Nebraska Highway 2. Northbound traffic on Highway 83 can at times back up onto the train tracks.

But local residents said such backups don't occur frequently. Hodges added that “most people are smart enough, they don't wait on the track.”

Marvin Blauvelt, who lives near the project, scoffed at all the safety talk.

“It was totally unnecessary,” he said of the viaduct. “There's never been an accident on that intersection, ever.”

The project claimed a portion of Blauvelt's property and brought the highway closer to his door, but he said that's not his reason for opposing it.

Asked about the lack of accidents, Oie said there have been car-train crashes at other rail crossings in Thomas County and that “no one has had to lose their life for this system improvement.”

The total cost of the project is expected to be about $9 million. That includes $256,000 from the railroad and about $1.7 million from the state.

A White House press release this summer about Nebraska's spending of stimulus money singled out the Thedford viaduct as the largest stimulus-funded project in the state at that time.

“Our No. 1 priority with the Recovery Act is getting folks back to work — and there is no better way to do that in these early days than by putting shovels in the ground and jump-starting projects like these that create jobs and boost local communities,” Vice President Joe Biden said in the release.

But some Thedford residents said they aren't convinced the project holds the promise of any great economic benefit for the immediate area, even if it has brought some business to the local gas stations and other retail outlets.

Lori Hall and her husband own a drywall company headquartered in Thedford, along with several ranches in the area. She said that given the dire economic situation, federal stimulus money could be used in better ways than a viaduct in the middle of the Sand Hills.

“It's ridiculous — a horrible, horrible way to spend money,” Hall said.
 

Cal

Well-known member
They're tearing out and enlarging the "airport" in Martin. Probably just as brilliant. :roll: Yet there is no money to fix the gawdawful Allen Hiway.
 

CattleArmy

Well-known member
Crazy waste of money. Next they'll be constructing vaidocks on west as the same trains run through those towns and yes sometimes up to five vehicles sit and wait to cross. :roll:
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
I was raking and baling along side the hiway that leads to the Port of White Tail MT. Today there was 4 vehicles in 6 hours that would have crossed going south and 1 coming north. The Stimulus/ Homeland Security plan a new $15 million port of entry for White Tail. I was called by a Canadian authority asking if it would be much of a disruption if they closed the port.

These governments need to get on the same page. White Tail is 30 miles from a 24 hour port and 15 from a busier port to the west. I recommended that they close the one and extend the hours at the next port west.
 

Steve

Well-known member
I was on a road to the east of Broken Bow.. the road is overused by a feedlot and between the hauling of distillers grain and cattle it has disintegrated...

the only thing really left is the nice gutter work that was done about ten to fifteen years ago..

I would think that this road.. is a bit more of a safety hazard.. maybe the state could at least get a few of the stimulus cones for the road..
 

MsSage

Well-known member
How about it goes where it is needed .....lets not just throw money around cuz it will be gone....where and what needs to be done get those started and finished.
Hey can I ask for Hwy 385 from Ok state line into Boise City be redone GOOD GAWD it will knock you fillings OUT. Better hope the truck on the other side is not a wide load or your in the dirt..no shoulders.

Steve maybe it just struck me wrong but how does a feedlot "overuse" a road? They pay their taxes and the cattel trucks hauling pay more than their fair share of road taxes. Could it be that the town is not keeping the road up? I ask that since we have so many feedlots within 20 miles of the center of town and our roads are not bad. We also have bunches of Dairys and Sweet bran trucks ( drivers are loco) delivering to both.
We are also the meeting spot for 3 highways no I am not talking interstates where they go over town but right through. We have massive amount of trucks gong through town everyday and night.
 

Steve

Well-known member
MsSage said:
How about it goes where it is needed .....lets not just throw money around cuz it will be gone....where and what needs to be done get those started and finished.
Hey can I ask for Hwy 385 from Ok state line into Boise City be redone GOOD GAWD it will knock you fillings OUT. Better hope the truck on the other side is not a wide load or your in the dirt..no shoulders.

Steve maybe it just struck me wrong but how does a feedlot "overuse" a road? They pay their taxes and the cattel trucks hauling pay more than their fair share of road taxes. Could it be that the town is not keeping the road up? I ask that since we have so many feedlots within 20 miles of the center of town and our roads are not bad. We also have bunches of Dairys and Sweet bran trucks ( drivers are loco) delivering to both.
We are also the meeting spot for 3 highways no I am not talking interstates where they go over town but right through. We have massive amount of trucks gong through town everyday and night.

the road was not designed nor built for the use it is receiving.. and apparently the revenue from the feedlot operation has not been sufficient to offset the cost of replacing the road..

if the road tax is not directed back to the county it would not be able to replace the road..

I am not against the feedlot nor it's use of the road...but when ever something is used beyond what it was designed for by a corporation and it fails, then you have to acknowledge it was not suitable for the use it received.. it's not a fault or balme issue,..it is an excepting reality issue,.. ,, I have used equipment beyond it's expected life and harder then it was designed for and in the end it failed.. is it the manufactures fault I was hard on it.. or mine? I usually acknowledge I was hard on it and buy a more industrial capable replacement.. to do less would cause me to waste time money and resources on repeated failures of equipment not designed nor built for my existing needs.. I could have said all that,, or just left it as the road was over-used..

I just pointed out that a much needed road is disintegrating while a unneeded unwanted boondoggle is being built.. and that money wasted on a boondoggle projects is needed now to repair it and other needed roads and bridges.. .and the need is apparent.. to everyone except politicians...

I am sure that had they actually had to drive on this or many of the other really bad roads on a daily basis it would have the funding..
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
guest1 said:
That money was going to go somewhere whether it went to LA or Thedford. It just as well go to Nebraska.

That money shouldn't be spend anywhere. We can't afford it and it only hamstrings our future.
 
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