LIMA — Long considered one of, if not the worst railroad crossings in Lima, the North Cable Road crossing is now repaired, with the crossing reopening Friday.
Closed for repairs on Nov. 9, the crossing was reopened ahead of schedule thanks to fair weather, with the original plan being to open the crossing Sunday. The project, with its $600,000 budget, represented a large investment by the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad, the owners of the rail line.
“It’s a way for us to be good neighbors,” Vice President of Government Affairs Charles Hunter said. “It really has no benefit for the train traffic. It’s strictly for the motoring public.”
In order for the crossing to better withstand the 20,000 vehicles that use it on an average day, Genessee & Wyoming used concrete to reconstruct it, rather than typical asphalt.
“We wanted to do it where it could have a long-lasting life,” Hunter said. “There’s a lot of heavy truck traffic over that crossing, and that’s what can really destroy these crossings.”
Lima resident John Bowker has been a longtime advocate for repairing the crossing and was gratified to see that accomplished, crediting Ohio Northern University’s Law Department and media coverage on the issue as contributors to the change.
“I felt happy, I felt, ‘Mission Accomplished,’” he said. “But there are other areas in the community that I need to focus on, now.”
Bowker also credits the railroad for making the repairs in a timely manner.
“I told them that it needed to be done for the holidays, because those businesses need to have traffic flowing through to get to Elida Road,” he said.
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