Brighton's Hyne Street Railroad Crossing Will Get New Safety Upgrades

The Hyne Street Railroad Crossing will soon be getting LED lights and gate upgrades at no cost to the City of Brighton, save an additional $70 per year in maintenance fees.

The upgrades will be paid for by CSX Railroad and the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), as a result of a recent traffic study safety team review of all railroad crossings throughout the state.

The flashing LED lights will replace regular bulbs and the crossroads will get a railroad gate that will drop down to block the tracks as a train approaches.

Brighton Director of Public Services Matt Schindewolf said improving railroad crossings is done on a regular basis, and was not as a result of recent deaths on railroad tracks in and .

Schindewolf said CSX and MDOT look at the potential for car-train accidents and if there have been incidents at any given crossing. Cities can request these reviews or the railroad can do them based on company data. Also factored in, is whether the crossing is in a high or low traffic area.

Schindewolf said the Hyne Street crossing had an incident within past year, so that bumped the City of Brighton higher on the priority list to be reviewed. CSX and MDOT inspected the crossing on July 12 and determined it needed safety upgrades.

Schindewolf said he did not know exactly what the Hyne Street crossing incident was because the railroad has its own ways of tracking what they consider to be incidents at crossings and it doesn't necessarily mean there was a crash or accident at the crossroads.

There are five railroad crossings in City of Brighton: Brighton Lake Road, Rickett Road, Main Street, Hyne Street and 4th Street.

Brighton Lake Road was the last crossing in the City of Brighton to be updated, and it was done at the city's request, with the city contributing more than $100,000 for LED lights and gate upgrades.

City Council members voted to amend its current service contract with CSX to not exceed an additional $100 per year, pending attorney review, during its Thursday night meeting.

Schindewolf said as soon as the contract is signed, most likely by Friday, CSX will begin the planning stages for the upgrades and that construction to install the lights and gates would begin this year, if possible.