The issue of trains blocking railroad crossings in Hampton Roads isn’t likely to go away any time soon — not at the rate the Port of Virginia is growing — so transportation officials hope to get federal grants to fund eventual solutions, whatever they may be.
Over the summer and fall, the staff of the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization finalized its method of prioritizing which of the 307 public, at-grade railroad crossings they would focus on to ease traffic congestion. They plan to present their proposal for 25 crossings based on this methodology to the HRTPO Board this month or in February, according to Keith Nichols, principal transportation engineer with the HRTPO.
Those crossings will be prioritized based on six different factors, each with several subcategories, that are weighted on a 100-point scale. Those factors:
• Traffic volumes, worth 15 points• Safety, worth 20 points• Roadway characteristics, worth 15 points• Train volumes, worth 10 points• Estimated delay, worth 25 points• Area/Equity factors, worth 15 points
“Whatever the highest scoring crossings are, those would be the ones we prioritize and try to get that federal funding for,” Nichols said.
Chesapeake has the most railroad crossings of any locality in Hampton Roads with 122, but Norfolk has the most public, at-grade crossings with 73, according to HRTPO data. Norfolk has been the most aggressive in seeking public input on the issue of railroad crossing delays, including promoting a webpage on which motorists can report delays in real-time.
Chesapeake has requested funding for a study of potential solutions for a crossing at Portlock Road, which they expect a decision on early this year, and are moving forward with the Freeman Avenue Overpass project which will provide an overpass crossing the Norfolk Portsmouth Belt Line railroad, according to Jason Brown, customer service manager for the Chesapeake Public Works Department.
Traffic delays at crossings have grown as the Port of Virginia has in recent years. There’s been a 30% increase in cargo going through the port since 2020 — the largest of any port over that time period — and there’s also been a roughly 7% shift of cargo from trucks to rail over the last decade.
“(The shift away from trucking) is great in terms of roadway congestion … but that also means many more conflicts when you look at at-grade rail crossings with more trains, longer trains, just because it’s so much more cargo going through the port,” Nichols said. “Many shippers have been shifting a lot of their freight from the west coast to the east coast.
“Not only have we seen growth (at the Port of Virginia) but every port on the east coast has seen growth and we do generally expect to see that continue.”
Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com