Drainage improvements scheduled at Cedar St. underpass

BNSF and the city of Creston are working together to fix drainage issues at the Cedar Street underpass. Residents often avoid this passage due to frequent flooding.

During a June Creston City Council meeting, the council approved a Culvert Construction Services Agreement with Burlington Northern Railroad. The City’s goal is to improve local drainage at the Cedar Street underpass by replacing culverts under the BNSF tracks and under the Adams Street public roadway.

BNSF owns and operates the railroad line that goes through Creston. According to the agreement, BNSF will be replacing the culvert at its own cost and expense. The scope of work includes installation of a 60 in diameter culvert under the railroad right of way and retirement of the existing 30 in diameter pipe by installing flowable fill for the length of the barrel and provide 150 tons of riprap.

The city will be installing a 7 ft by 4 ft box culvert under Adams Street, retire the existing junction box by removing the structure, place riprap and complete all other work related to the project off BNSF property. For the city’s part, during the last city council meeting, the council approved the purchase of a concrete single cell box culvert from Rinker Materials at a cost of $63,840.

Work on this is expected to start in September. City Administrator Mike Taylor said the boring company is planning to start their work after Labor Day and the culvert for East Adams Street will be placed the last week of September or first week of October. Taylor said this is all tentative until the on-site pre-construction meeting.

Nearby, work is moving along on the Public Works building. Council approved payment of $259,810 Graphite Construction group for work completed. The contract sum is $3,562,543. The city of Creston is using state road use money to pay for the new building which is on the same lot as the current building.

KSIB contributed to this story.