The potential closure of two railroad crossings near Wellborn won’t be considered until after the holidays.
A spokesman for Union Pacific says Brazos County Commissioners do not have a deadline to consider their offer, as the railroad continues plans to build a siderail to handle more train traffic.
County Judge Duane Peters says the county will participate in a meeting sponsored by Citizens for Wellborn covering transportation issues in the southern part of the county.
That includes Union Pacific’s offer to build a new crossing if the county closes crossings at Wade and Straub Road.
That gathering will be the evening of Friday, January 9th, at the Wellborn Community Center starting at 6:00 p.m.
The following Tuesday, January 13th, Peters says he hopes to have a memorandum of understanding ready for a commission vote. If it’s approved, the judge says that’s when the county would approach the property owner to buy the land to extend Greens Prairie Trail from Wellborn to IGN Road.
UP would build the new crossing at an estimated cost of $620,000 dollars. TxDOT has also indicated an interest in making an undisclosed contribution to the project, which the railroad gave a rough estimate of $3.5 million.
North of this project, UP continues to purchase property and design what was announced two and a half years ago as a $200 million dollar railyard between Mumford and Hearne. A construction timeline has not been set.