New railroad crossing on Sam T. Barkley Dr. finished in under 33 hours

The new crossing on Sam T. Barkley Dr. at the Ripley and New Albany Railroad (RNA) north of New Albany was finished a little sooner than promised.

RNA Railroad intersection on Sam T. Barkley Dr. replaced

A specialized construction crew from DeQuincy, Louisiana started work on replacing the old crossing at 8 a.m. Friday morning, Nov. 6. Union County District Three Supervisor C. J. Bright said Thursday he expected the new crossing to be finished and Sam T. Barkley Dr. re-opened by 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7.

An 11-man crew from Vision, LLC started work on time Friday morning. By about noon Friday the crew from Louisiana had the old crossing torn out and the trench dug for the new crossing.

By late Friday afternoon the crew had major elements of the new crossing assembled and were ready to start putting it all back together.

The Vision crew finished its work on the crossing by 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Then the Union County Road Crew started paving new approaches to the finished crossing. County Road Manager Scott Wiggington and the road crew finished the asphalt paving work by about 4:30 Saturday afternoon.

Heavily traveled Sam T. Barkley Drive was re-opened to traffic a few minutes before 5 p.m.

Another contractor will install new warning lights at the crossing in the near future.

The Ripley and New Albany Railroad runs two or three trains a week, usually on Mondays and/or Tuesdays, to haul freight from Oil Dri Corporation and JNS Biofuel 2. The RNA train brings the rail cars to New Albany where they are switched to the BNSF Railroad for shipment to other points east and west.

Union County road crews put down new pavement on the approaches to the new railroad crossing on Sam T. Barkley Dr.

Rene Luevana, manager of the Vision, LLC crew, said they would have some more work to do immediately north of the crossing to finish the project. That work will not interfere with the flow of traffic on Sam T. Barkley.
Luevana said his crew would return to New Albany in future weeks to replace another old RNA crossing.

Luevana’s railroad construction crew work in and from DeQuincy, Louisiana, which is the northernmost town in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. DeQuincy is about 25 miles northwest of Lake Charles, which is also in Calcasieu Parish. The western border of Calcasieu Parish is the Texas state line.

DeQuincy, while its population is only 3,200 is a major crossing of the Union Pacific Railroad and Kansas City Southern Railroad. The two railroads and related industries such as Vision, LLC make railroad work the principal employment in the town.

The old Kansas City Southern depot in DeQuincy is a railroad museum.