During Grand Forks visit, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg touts benefits of planned rail underpass

GRAND FORKS — U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Monday touted the benefits of a $30 million grant designed to improve safety and efficiency at one of the state’s most troublesome rail crossings.

The project will construct a vehicle underpass at the intersection of 42nd Street and DeMers Avenue in Grand Forks, allowing unimpeded north-south travel for vehicle traffic. The underpass also will include a 10-foot-wide path for pedestrians and cyclists.

The grant is one of 63 awarded nationwide, totaling more than $570 million within the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) railroad crossing elimination program, which has worked to improve safety at more than 400 railway crossings. It is part of the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law in November 2021 by the Biden administration.

Buttigieg made the announcement at a ceremony Monday in Grand Forks. During the event, he said he admires Grand Forks’ dedication to improving its future, and cited the project as evidence.

“I’m really happy to be here and have the chance to see this community, and the pride people take in it,” he said. “I’ll be honest: The first time I ever heard of Grand Forks was when you had those terrible floods in the 1990s. The whole nation paused to see how you would recover, lift each other up and build a better future. Now, you’re living in that future that you helped each other toward, and we’re trying to make that future even brighter.”

Mayor Brandon Bochenski thanked local, state and federal leaders for their work in securing the grant.

“I would like to thank our federal delegation for raising awareness of this project at a national level and for continuing to champion Grand Forks,” Bochenski said. “This is the largest federal grant for a road project in Grand Forks’ history. I would also like to thank our city engineering staff for their relentless work along with the North Dakota Department of Transportation and (rail company) BNSF to try to find a funding solution for this project.”

Gary Lorenz, fire chief of the Grand Forks Fire Department, said the underpass will “significantly improve public safety within the city.” He cited the elimination of potential vehicle-train collisions at the intersection, along with unimpeded travel for emergency responders to the northwest section of the city.

“Emergencies will and do occur at any time of the day or night,” Lorenz said. “If first responders must take alternative routes, or dispatch different units because trains are occupying this intersection, precious lifesaving minutes are lost.”

According to Buttigieg, the intersection has experienced 69 crashes causing 12 injuries over the past five years, including a vehicle-train collision, and has been “the railroad crossing with the most complaints in North Dakota.”

“The mayor let me know that the 42nd Street rail crossing is something the community here has been working on addressing since 1991,” Buttigieg said. “And with good reason. The university has made clear its concerns about the lack of safe crossing for students walking or biking around here. This crossing right here has received more complaints than any other in the state of North Dakota.”

Buttigieg also said the underpass will be a boon for commerce by reducing shipping delays.

“You don’t have to live anywhere near North Dakota to feel the impact any time things are not as fluid as they ought to be on the highways or rail lines that come through this state,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer — a ranking member on the Senate Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure — said he is impressed with the level of bipartisanship on the subject of infrastructure.

“Working on that bill was one of the joys of my career so far in Congress,” said Cramer, R-N.D. “We passed two bills in our committee unanimously. You know how hard it is to do things unanimously in Washington? Well, it’s not that hard when you do the right thing, and you’re talking about one thing everyone agrees on. And that’s that infrastructure is critical to our safety, security and the efficient movement of goods and services.”

Buttigieg also praised the spirit of bipartisanship that helped the grant’s funding source come to fruition.

“As Senator Cramer said, you usually find people having trouble believing that you can get anything done on a bipartisan basis in today’s Washington,” he said. “Here you have this bipartisan infrastructure law that has helped to make possible grants across the country and North Dakota. I think there’s something poetic about the fact that Republicans and Democrats crossed the aisle to work together so that pedestrians and vehicles will be able to cross this intersection safely.”

Banish covers news pertaining to K-12 and higher education, as well as county commission coverage.