Coincidence?

Go ahead Colarusso, destroy our new smooth crossing!

Early this year, I made a formal complaint to Amtrak about their rough track crossing on Broad Street, the connector that gets us in and out of the Riverfront Park. The complaint was done by email, sent to the Amtrak headquarters in Washington, D.C.  I even got a response thanking me for my complaint and that it would be considered.  Also, on two occasions over the past few months, I stopped by the local Amtrak Engineering office to complain about their crossing. During the second visit, I was told that the crossing was scheduled to be redone "in the fall."

I'm not going to take credit for getting Amtrak to replace their long-deplorable crossing.  Maybe they listened to me, maybe it was a coincidence.  I don't care who got the ball rolling.  But I can say absolutely without a doubt that there are two people in Hudson who should have reached out to Amtrak years ago about the crossing but did nothing of the sort:  Kamal Johnson and Robert Perry. 

With the permission of a worker at the site, I walked my bicycle across the new crossing today.  It was like night and friggin' day -- no more kachunk kachunk x 3!  The difference in construction this time seems to be precast concrete that might be reinforced and more able to withstand the assault of Colarusso's truck traffic (though there was still plenty of asphalt used as well).  Time will tell.

Our new crossing should be ready for vehicles tomorrow or Saturday.