Rail crossing on Duff Avenue blocks traffic for hours daily; staff recommends a separate rail study

Traffic engineers told council the railroad crossing south of Main Street remains the corridor's most consequential operational constraint and that detailed study is needed to evaluate major remedies such as grade separation. John Witt summarized signal preemption and video counts: "There's an average of 38 trains per day on weekdays, and the average gate downtime is 3 minutes 15 seconds," he said, adding that the data implies the crossing is blocked about two hours per weekday on average.

Staff explained that long train events (6–7 minutes) create much longer queues and that recovery times are asymmetric: southbound traffic typically finds alternate diversion routes while some northbound vehicles can become trapped after committing from Lincoln Way. "Based on the data we had... the recovery period northbound was up to 90 seconds or even more in some situations," Witt said.

Council members pressed on timing, cost and dependencies. Staff acknowledged that a grade separation would be costly and complex and that an in‑depth grade‑separation study would likely take about two years to complete; implementation of any large project would be long-range (10–15 years) and require substantial funding and potential property impacts. Funding avenues noted included MPO planning funds or a federal Railroad Crossing Elimination grant from the FRA. Staff recommended bringing a railroad study forward with the final corridor report if council wants to prioritize that approach.