Hill Country drivers have filed 83 complaints with the Federal Railroad Administration over the past five years about trains blocking Centerpoint Road - familiar to San Antonians as the street taking them from Interstate 35 to San Marcos Premium Outlets.
Their complaints describe an "almost daily" frustration of having to wait 15 minutes, a half-hour or longer for a freight train to pass over the road, where it crosses a Union Pacific route just west of Interstate 35.
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"In the last week, this has happened four times. Why won't someone do something about this," wrote one driver, in a complaint filed in July 2023.
In coming years, drivers could find it easier to traverse the two-lane road now that Hays County has secured $39.2 million in federal funds to eliminate the crossing. Those dollars are coming from a $756 million grant the Federal Railroad Administration awarded the Texas Department of Transportation last month, covering 12 projects across Texas, including two in Bexar County.
The grant was awarded through the agency's Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Program, intended to support projects to expand passenger rail or improve its performance. Though the rail line crossing Centerpoint Road is mainly used for freight, it carries Amtrak's once-daily Texas Eagle service between San Antonio and Austin.
"Every day, drivers, school buses and emergency responders traveling on Centerpoint Road can be delayed by passing trains. That is not only a traffic concern, but it is also a public safety issue," Hays County Precinct 3 Commissioner Morgan Hammer said in a written statement. "Elevating the roadway over the tracks would eliminate that conflict and improve safety and mobility."
The plan is to build a bridge carrying Centerpoint Road over the rail track, owned by the freight giant Union Pacific. The roadway will be widened to feature two lanes going both directions, with shared-use paths for cyclists and pedestrians on either side.
The 0.6-mile project has a total cost of $49 million, meaning another $9.8 million in funding is needed, according to the county. The county is expected to cover $8.5 million of that, and Union Pacific nearly $1.3 million, county spokesperson Natalie Frels said.
A spokesperson for Union Pacific did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The rail crossing elimination was among 30 road projects Hays County planned to pay for with a $440 million bond measure voters approved in 2024 - only for a Texas judge to throw out the bond, ruling that the election was invalid because the county had violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by doing too little to publicize the bond.
The county later decided to pay for the projects by issuing $240 million of certificates of obligation, a different form of municipal debt which does not require voter approval. Of that, $3.9 million has been allocated to the Centerpoint Road project, to pay for design, utility coordination and right-of-way acquisition, Frels said - in other words, buying the land the overpass will sit on. The federal grant will allow the project to proceed into construction, she said.
Utility work and acquisition of the property will last until 2028, according to the county's website; the date of completion has yet to be determined.
The end result could look something like the overpass carrying Wonder World Drive over the rail line. That overpass was built in the late 2000s, about three miles north of Centerpoint.
Hays County is also looking to eliminate the rail crossing at McCarty Lane, west of its intersection with I-35, about 1 mile north of Centerpoint Road, according to the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, an agency that plays a key role in determining which transportation projects in the Austin region receive federal funding.
As with the Centerpoint project, McCarty Lane would be expanded to four lanes from its current two lanes. That project is expected to cost $32.3 million, according to the agency. H-E-B is building a supermarket at McCarty Lane and I-35, outside the project's scope; the store is expected to open this fall, according to MySA.
Eliminating rail crossings has grown into a more urgent issue across the U.S., but especially in Texas, as rail companies have made it a practice to run longer freight trains in a quest for higher profits, according to reporting in the Wall Street Journal. Longer trains tend to run more slowly.
The Union Pacific line is part of a crucial freight route originating in the Port of Laredo on the Texas-Mexico border, which has lately emerged as the nation's top port, due in large part to the growth of the Texas-Mexico manufacturing ecosystem. Every day, tons of produce, auto parts and electronics roll through San Antonio on their way to other U.S. cities.
Drivers have logged 82 complaints with federal officials about trains blocking McCarty Lane at its crossing with the Union Pacific line since 2021, according to federal data.
"Negative impact to local businesses. Compounding already bad traffic conditions," one motorist wrote in September 2023.
Hays County has targeted another rail crossing for elimination, at Kohlers Crossing in Kyle. The estimated cost is $28.6 million.
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This article originally published at Hill Country county to build overpass at busy railroad crossing.