LULA - Norfolk Southern plans to "smooth out" two railroad crossings in the City of Lula beginning January 6th, but officials only recently notified the city of those plans.
Assistant City Clerk Teresa Heath said in a telephone interview Thursday morning that notification came to the city on the Friday before Christmas.
"Road Safety Traffic Systems notified us on the 19th that they'd be closing the some crossings beginning January 6th." Heath said.
"There's two railroad crossings involved," Heath continued. "The first closure will be at State Route 52, better known as Lula Road for us, followed by State Route 51, which we call Athens Street."
Heath said Norfolk Southern indicated that the closures will be as minimal as possible, timewise. "The closures should be one to two days for maintenance repair work. It's possible both crossings will be closed at the same time, but they are hoping to close only one each day."
Heath said depending upon such things as weather there could be as much as two weeks between closings. She said the purpose of the work is to provide a smoother crossing experience, something she said is much needed, based on comments received at city hall.
She said most people don't know the city has little control over what the railroad does to its crossings and when it does them. "People call here all the time about it (the roughness and bumps of the crossings) all the time and we don't have any control over what the railroad does, but people think that city hall should tell them to fix it, and it'll be fixed."
Heath said the city has tried to notify the public as quickly as possible of the traffic detours that wil be needed. "We've put out flyers around town the best we can. The Road Safety Division has also contacted GDOT, (Hall) County dispatch, EMS, the schools. So we've tried to get the word out through several different avenues."
"Hopefully," Heath said, "it'll be smoother than it is now."
(Attached to this story are suggested detours for the public to use during the closures. The images are provided by Norfolk Southern and shared with us through the courtesy of the City of Lula.)
