Section of one Columbia’s busiest roads to be closed for days to repair train tracks
A stretch of one of the busiest roads in Columbia will be closed for days as repairs are made to train tracks.
Drivers on Assembly Street commonly encounter delays because of the trains that run through Columbia several times a day.
Now they’ll have to make another concession to the trains. Repairs to tracks will have part of the road blocked from April 20-23, according to a news release from Norfolk Southern Railroad.
The block on Assembly Street, between Catawba and Whaley streets, will be closed as fixes are made to the crossing located there.
That’s near the University of South Carolina’s campus, three blocks from Blossom Street. It’s where the YOUnion apartment complex and a strip mall with a student bookstore and Subway restaurant are located, among other businesses.
Road work will begin at 8 a.m. Monday morning, and the Assembly Street is scheduled to reopen at the same time on the following Thursday, according to Ray Porter, a project manager for Benchmark Consulting, and a Norfolk Southern representative.
While repairs are being made, a detour will be set up from Blossom to Huger to Whaley streets, it said in the release.
Drivers who normally travel through this section of Assembly Street are asked add more time to their normal commute for the detour, or to seek alternative routes.
Norfolk Southern reached out to both the South Carolina Department of Transportation and the City of Columbia about making the repairs, SCDOT’s chief engineer for operations Andrew Leaphart told The State.
It is one of several projects being done with fewer drivers on the roads because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster has ordered residents to “work or stay home,” while closing several nonessential businesses, reducing the need for as many drivers to commute.
“We want to try to take advantage of lower traffic volumes to make repairs, but we are taking COVID-19 serious,” Leaphart said of ensuring SCDOT workers are following social distancing mandates. “We’re adjusting and learning as the rules change.”
Some areas have actually seen an increase in traffic during the coronavirus pandemic, but Leaphart said there are fewer cars on the roads overall.
“The morning commute is not what it was six weeks ago,” Leaphart said.
Leaphart said this has created the opportunity for SCDOT and its contractors to take advantage of more daylight hours to make repairs and perform maintenance without disrupting traffic.
Ironically, the spread of COVID-19 has made it safer for road work. It’s helping them to clean debris from roads across South Carolina after 3,000 trees went down across the state in Monday mornings storms and tornadoes.
“We are moving forward with our contractors, but we’ll reevaluate if traffic gets bad,” Leaphart said. “We want to give folks the heads up and reach them about road work,” like the repairs on Assembly Street.
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 10:53 AM.
