RICHMOND – Talk continues but solutions remain elusive regarding safe rail crossings at and near Henrietta.

After the Missouri Department of Transportation had sold the old Highway 13 bridge in Henrietta to the Ray County Commission, which could not afford maintenance, the overpass closed due to safety issues. As a result, people needing to move farm equipment from the south side of the county through Henrietta lack an easy route.

In addition, the railroad company BNSF wants to close some crossings.

Commissioners talked about the issue Feb. 4 with BNSF Missouri Project Manager Jeremy Wegner, Henrietta Special Road District’s Aaron Hicks, and landowners John Williams and Steve

Strickler.

Hicks talked about possible alternative crossing sites and accessways, but Williams and Strickler pointed out problems, including what could happen if the Williams crossing closes.

“That landlocks two landowners,” Williams said. “They cannot get access to their fields without that crossing.”

Creating a road in an area to facilitate a crossing also drew concern.

“The owners … are not in favor of having that road built on their property,” Williams said.

Hicks said the process of informing people about alternatives to existing crossings is in progress.

“These are crossings that are being mentioned, so we haven’t made any decisions,” he said.

Wegner said the railroad company wants some crossings closed to minimize potential points of contact between motorists and trains.

Strickler said there is a place he does not cross the tracks because he cannot see far enough ahead to know whether he can drive equipment across safely.

But closing some railroad crossings could cause hardship, Williams said.

“You’re talking about closing two crossings forever,” he said. “You’re going to mess up not just farmers. … There’s quite a population on Sunshine Lake.”

“If the water gets up and backs in from Crooked River,” Strickler said, “the only access we have to our farm is from the north. It actually gets over the roads to the south of us. It’s happened three or four times.”

Eastern Commissioner Dave Powell said a major problem arises when floodwater threatens the bottoms and forces expensive farm equipment to move from south to north. Williams said that has happened several times since the overpass closed. During the double flood in 2019, the Ray County Commission allowed the overpass to open to move equipment north.

Using the overpass, even in emergency situations, will not be possible forever.

“Without maintenance on that thing, I can foresee that somebody will have to take it down,” Williams said. “I’m not going to bet my life that it’s going to be there for my grandkids.”

Before the overpass, during the 1930s, the overpass location in Henrietta had a railroad crossing, Williams said.

“But then, there was a real bad accident. … That’s how your ‘overhead’ got put in there,” he said.

A meeting about a year ago focused on restoring the overpass, but now that the idea has been abandoned because of lack of funds, what is left are various ideas but no agreement about what to do.

“A crossing is going to be our solution, rather than an overpass,” Hicks said. “An overpass is not going to be economically viable.”

The county and city could not afford overpass repairs without government help, which is not coming, he said.

When another meeting is called, possibly in March, to get everyone together to discuss solutions, Wegner said he would like to attend.

“There’s no simple solutions,” King said. “Most of them involve lots of money.”

“Money’s always the easy solution,” Williams said.

“That’s what it comes down to,” King said.