When will something be done to improve safety at deadly railroad crossing?

Tacomans have been waiting since the beginning of the year for safety improvements at the McCarver railroad crossing, where two runners died almost exactly a year apart trying to cross the double tracks.

It looks like they’ll have to wait a while longer.

It could be up to three more months before already-approved safety measures can be installed at the crossing at North McCarver Street and Ruston Way, according to a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, which owns the tracks.

The improvements include wrought-iron fencing, which would channel pedestrians to the east side of McCarver Street to cross the tracks, and pedestrian gates that would lower when a train is coming to prevent people from trying to beat an oncoming train.

“We anticipate that within 60 to 90 days that the improvements can be in place …,” BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said Wednesday. “… in the meantime we want the public to realize that trains move through this corridor — there can be 50-plus movements in a 24-hour period at McCarver — and to be aware that these trains move at any time on any of the tracks in the area in any direction.”

The city had hoped to have at least interim safety improvements, including temporary chain-link fencing, in place by the July Fourth Freedom Fair, which attracts large crowds to the Ruston Way waterfront. City officials anticipated the temporary fencing would have stayed in place until permanent improvements could be installed.

But negotiations were hampered by railroad bureaucracy and other factors, said Kurtis Kingsolver, Tacoma’s public works director. Because BNSF owns the railroad tracks, it has to approve and authorize permitting for whatever safety improvements are made there.

“Public works staff performed exhaustive efforts coordinating with BNSF to install temporary chain-link fencing at the McCarver Street crossing prior to the July 4 Freedom Fair,” Kingsolver wrote in a July 5 memorandum to City Manager Elizabeth Pauli. “Unfortunately, the efforts fell apart on the final days leading up the event.”

Kingsolver told The News Tribune this week that the city’s main contact at BNSF recently retired and pointed out the railroad is a large organization with multiple channels to work through to acquire permits and other approvals.

In the end, city crews erected orange, mesh construction fencing at the crossing during Freedom Fair. It’s since been taken down, since it was flimsy and aesthetically unappealing.

“It’s just taking longer than we had hoped,” he said. “They’ve been frankly good to work with and fairly responsive, but we typically think we’ve made more progress and then get set back a little bit having to talk to other people we didn’t anticipate.”

The delays have frustrated City Councilman Robert Thoms, whose district includes the crossing, as well as an attorney at the law office where 28-year-old Alexandria Lewis worked before she died trying to cross the tracks at McCarver in November.

Thoms said Thursday he’s working with the city’s legal staff to determine what “legal recourse we have with BNSF.” He also forwarded to The News Tribune an email he said he’d sent to a BNSF employee.

“We are 8 mos (sic) since the last accident — and for that entire time we as a City wanted to make improvements and we have been waiting for an OK from your company. I fought to have funding allocated from OUR BUDGET to do this and nothing from BNSF,” the email reads.

“We could have easily asked that BNSF help fund, but we didn’t want to delay our response, funny as we are now nearly 9 mos (sic) from the accident — this is shameful in my mind as it should have been an easy, go forth … and help make the crossing safer. … I am afraid we may be beyond the time frame to show the improvements to be truly responsive to anyone who cares, but the improvements must be made.”

Almost exactly one year before Lewis was hit and killed, 31-year-old Cale Tyler died after he was hit by an Amtrak train while crossing the tracks during an evening run.

Both the railroad and Tacoma agreed to the improvements earlier this year, and the city has set aside $500,000 in the 2017-18 budget to pay for them and other railroad-crossing safety upgrades across the city.

This story was originally published July 27, 2017 at 12:00 PM with the headline "When will something be done to improve safety at deadly railroad crossing?."