FDOT threatens to close railroad crossing in Hawthorne

A railroad crossing that runs through downtown Hawthorne is a candidate to be shut down over safety concerns, a rail specialist from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) said Tuesday, in a presentation to the Hawthorne Commission.

The crossing is at Southeast 222nd Street.

Jan Bordelon, a rail specialist for FDOT, said the main criteria were safety and necessity. She said the lack of a signal crossing created a safety concern and availability of nearby crossings meant the crossing was not that necessary.

“This is a potential for us to remove a crossing with a very insignificant impact on the community.”

Commissioners and Hawthorne citizens saw the issue differently.

Commissioner Matthew Surrency said the safety concerns are overstated.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a crash. If there is a crash, it’s moving at 5 miles per hour,” Surrency said.

He said the bigger safety concern is for cars pulling onto U.S. Highway 301.

“I’d much rather dodge a 5-mile-an-hour train than a 55-mile-an-hour vehicle.”

Surrency also noted that closing down the crossing would deter business in the area and have a much bigger impact than Bordelon had suggested.

One of those business owners in the affected area, Shane Henry, owner of the Lake Area Animal Hospital, spoke against closing the crossing at the meeting.

He said it’s money and not safety or necessity that is motivating the closure.

“In 30 years, I’ve never seen any problems. Everybody cuts through there. So if you go through your criteria, I think it’s economics that CXS has pushed the Department of Transportation to shut this down,” Henry said.

“You thought we were stupid or something, and you were going to take advantage of little Hawthorne…. Wrong,” Henry added.

On June 22, FDOT began conducting diagnostic tests of railroad crossings throughout Florida. On June 30, FDOT and CSX submitted an application to close the Hawthorne crossing.

“In the past seven years, there has not been a collision between a train and a vehicle, but there is a potential,” Bordelon said.

She said alternatives to closing the railroad crossing would be costly. Maintaining the crossing would cost the city $2,000 annually and putting in a signal to improve safety would cost $200,000.

Bordelon said community input was important to the process. FDOT and CSX have offered $7,500 each to the city for agreeing to the closure. The money could be used for road repairs or safety improvements at other crossings.

“We always try and do it collaboratively and cooperatively, in the sense we bring everybody that is impacted to the table, and we try and get agreement,” Bordelon said.

She said the department is still in the process of collecting data and working with the city.

 “If we can’t come to an agreement, then the department is left with making a recommended order and our recommendation would be based upon the data, whether or not to permit the closure,” Bordelon said.