In the News

Funding for a superstructure solution to a longtime traffic headache in Hampden County, Massachusetts has been announced. It could also have implications for the state's ongoing west-east rail project.

It's one thing for drivers to brake and wait at a railway crossing as a locomotive heads through. But for drivers heading between West Springfield and Agawam at Front and Bridge streets - the wait can be a whole different story.

"Literally, you can end up having a train sitting on the tracks there, sometimes for hours,” Agawam Mayor Christopher Johnson said at West Springfield Town Hall Monday. “Traffic will back all the way up, going in both directions, on Route 20 in West Springfield.”

With a massive trainyard right down the tracks in West Springfield, officials say CSX engines heading into the hub will pause on a railway crossing on Front Street as train traffic gets sorted.

According to Congressman Richard Neal of the 1st District, some 8,000 vehicles travel through the crossing every day.

With seemingly no advance warnings, that translates to traffic breaking out on West Springfield’s Front Street and Agawam’s Bridge Street.

When a train ends up stationed there, blocking traffic, drivers crossing the bridge out of Agawam end up in an awkward spot while drivers on the West Springfield side can find themselves maneuvering around 2nd Street or connecting roads to get around.

"It provides not only a problem for traffic, which no one likes to wait, but also a public safety concern - West Side and Agawam share mutual aid with our ambulance services often - and it provides a problem for development,” West Springfield Mayor Will Reichelt said.

Solutions, aside from drivers turning around and taking a longer route, have been sparse.

Warning lights were installed to give drivers heading toward the crossing a heads up that a train would be passing through, but as Johnson pointed out – they’re motion-activated – not going off when a still train is sitting on the tracks.

Past discussions with CSX did not appear to be productive, but during an announcement Monday involving the mayors, state transportation officials, and Neal – headway and funding for a fix were detailed.

Neal says it took a few contentious meetings involving CSX, but over time, a partnership came together.

“Sometimes, it’s kind of hard to get them to move because they see a series of challenges that they have - it’s a national company,” the congressman said. “But, they were able after a series of meetings - as I said, first couple, pretty contentious - the follow-up? Much better.”

Funding for the construction of a flyover across the Front Street rail crossing, as well as a new roadway configuration connecting Bridge and Second Streets in West Springfield were announced Monday.

The project will cost at least $20 million and will include $2 million contributed by CSX and support from the federal government, including funding from the Railway-Highway Crossings Program – a program supplemented by $245 million from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for FY22 through FY26, according to Neal’s office.

Exact totals were not detailed, though state and local sources are expected to contribute. as well.

MassDOT Rail & Transit Administrator Meredith Slessinger says the project is in its earliest phases. Exact timelines are expected to come together as stakeholders finalize procurements needed for preliminary engineering and design work.

That is to say - it may be around three years before construction begins, according to Slessinger.

“We're finalizing procurement for 25 percent design now, so we will get started, and … we want to - start construction around 2027, but until we finalize that procurement and start that work, I’ll let that be an estimate for the moment,” she said.

She says the work is also expected to have a positive effect on the future of west-east rail efforts.

“This project won't just benefit the immediate towns, but this will also make projects like west-east rail, create more operational flexibility and more fluidity so that we are not having passenger and freight rail conflicts the way that we do on shared track,” Slessinger added.

In a statement, CSX says it appreciates Neal and MassDOT forming a partnership to “relieve the transportation challenges” in the area, adding that “closing the at-grade crossings and constructing an overpass will enhance public safety and ensure a free flow of traffic unhindered by normal rail operations.”