Columbus is working with a local cable company to install a video system that will alert emergency responders about oncoming trains.
The camera feed will go directly to the Columbus/Bartholomew County 911 Emergency Operations Center so dispatchers can avoid directing first responders into the path of a train delay.
But motorists shouldn’t give up hope of having their own warning system. Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop said Tuesday that the city is working with Purdue Polytechnic students to develop an app or text alert system for citizens to use to avoid train delays at Bartholomew County intersections, based off the camera feed.
The camera system was to be discussed at Tuesday’s Board of Works meeting, but was taken off the agenda to allow some details to be clarified, Lienhoop said.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
The cameras are being proposed as an interim measure, with the city’s Redevelopment Commission engaging the services of Security Pros to install motion-activated cameras along three intersections that lead into Columbus. They are at County Road 950S in Jonesville, the intersection of County Road 450S and State Road 11 and at the State Road 46/State Road 11 crossing.
Installing the cameras will allow 911 dispatchers to notify first responders of the location of a moving train to help them get to accident and other emergency scenes quicker.
The agreement, which involves working with Comcast to provide continuous video feeds to the Emergency Operations Center in Columbus, will have a monthly fee of $109.85 for each camera and a one-time installation charge of $199 per camera. The agreement will be in place for 36 months, according to the city.
Longer train delays at the Louisville & Indiana railroad crossings through Bartholomew County are predicted to begin later this year when CSX, which is leasing the tracks, begins increasing the frequency, length and speed of freight trains on the rail line from Seymour to Indianapolis.
The initial scope of train traffic includes two more CSX trains a day compared to up to six daily trains now, railroad officials said last summer. That’s in addition to the two to four trains a day that Louisville & Indiana runs on the line.
An estimated 22 trains a day are expected to travel through Bartholomew County and through the State Road 46/State Road 11 intersection beginning late this year, according to city consultant American StructurePoint.
Columbus has partnered with the state, Cummins, Inc., the two railroads and Bartholomew County to build a $30 million overpass over the State Road 46/State Road 11 intersection so that west-side incoming and outgoing traffic is not delayed by the increased train traffic.
The railroad is working to construct a new Flat Rock River railroad bridge in Columbus this summer, and the faster and heavier train traffic will begin in earnest after that bridge is completed. Right now, trains must slow from the high-speed line speed limit of 49 mph to 10 mph when crossing the old railroad bridge. That means train traffic is slowing considerably before it enters the rail intersections in the city limits now, railroad officials said.
