Published: Sep 8, 2005

Apex on prowl for rail crossings

Town wants help with loop road

By Toby coleman, Staff Writer

Wanted: railroad crossings. Willing to pay up to $50,000 per crossing.

Call Bruce Radford, Apex town manager.

Last month, with a pen, a list of about 80 railroad crossings and a telephone, Radford began an unprecedented search for the short stretches of asphalt that cross the state's train tracks. He said he has called dozens of town officials throughout the state. But he refused to name them, because some of the people he talked to have not had a chance to consult with their local elected leaders.

"It's been going pretty good," he said Wednesday. "I've been told no in a variety of ways, and I've been told strong maybes in a couple of nice ways."

Radford has created this new market out of political necessity. He is trying to help his bosses, Apex's elected town commissioners, build a new loop road without strangling roads that bring traffic by the shops, restaurants and galleries downtown.

If he cannot buy two railroad crossings in other parts of the state, the commissioners say they will have to cut off a couple of routes into Apex's downtown by closing its own crossings.

"Our options are dwindling," said Mayor Keith Weatherly.

The CSX railroad demanded the closures before the town could build the northern stretch of the Apex Peakway, a road that will eventually loop around the town. The peakway will cross the CSX tracks just north of downtown. The Jacksonville, Fla., company is trying to cut down on the number of places cars can drive over its rails in Apex and elsewhere because it thinks that will make its tracks safer, a CSX spokeswoman said.

In downtown Apex, though, merchants say the elimination of roads could kill their businesses. They particularly worry about the prospect of the town closing the crossings on Center Street or East Chatham Street.

Shutting them down could "choke the downtown," said Pam Huelsman, who opened the Rusty Bucket, a home furnishing shop, downtown, about a year ago.

So last month, the town commissioners began searching for a way to build the peakway without closing downtown.

They felt stuck. The town did not have an extra $4.5 million to $9 million to build a bridge over the tracks. CSX seemed to have the town "at the point of a sword," Weatherly said.

It was then that Commissioner Bill Jensen offered an off-the-wall idea. Why not buy railroad crossings in other towns and close them?

CSX agreed to consider the deal, as long as the crossings Apex bought carried about the same number of cars as Center or East Chatham streets.

Radford began shopping for railroad crossings. It was no easy task; nobody at the N.C. League of Municipalities had ever heard of anyone doing something like this.

Radford did not even know, for instance, how much a railroad crossing might be worth. He decided one like Apex's East Chatham Street, which is used by about 1,800 cars a day, is worth roughly $50,000.

Radford is not a picky shopper. He does not much care about the road's condition or location, provided it is in North Carolina.

Even so, he expects it could take months to buy a railroad crossing because the seller will have to hold public hearings before taking the money from Apex to close it down.

With that in mind, Radford is preparing a public hearing to close railroad crossings in downtown Apex, just in case his market venture fails.

Staff writer Toby Coleman can be reached at 829-8937 or tcoleman@newsobserver.com.