Rail crossing upgrades complete in Coweta
By SARAH FAY CAMPBELL
sarah@newnan.com
Railroad crossing maintenance crews from CSX have now completed all their work in Coweta County.
The last two crossings to be worked on, Herring Road and Minnie Sewell Road, opened to traffic on Friday, according to Ray Porter with Benchmark Consulting, which is working with CSX.
There were two separate crews doing slightly different projects. The "tie replacement" work was done in northern Coweta, from Johnston Circle to Herring Road.
A "resurfacing crew" was doing work farther south, from downtown Newnan to Grantville.The biggest, and most disruptive, of the projects was the tie replacement project at Hwy. 154 and U.S. 29. The crossing was expected to be shut down for up to five days. But things got done quickly and the crossing, which had closed on Monday, was opened early Thursday.
The Herring Road crossing closed as soon as Hwy. 154/ U.S. 29 opened.
Porter said that he asked the work crews not to shut down the Herring Road crossing until the Hwy. 154/ U.S. 29 crossing was open, after receiving information that the Herring Road crossing was a crucial detour for those trying to get around the 154/29 crossing.
The work on the Herring Road crossing took less than 24 hours.
"When they shut it down, they were right on top of it," Porter said. "They blasted through it fairly quickly."
