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Drivers hampered by railroad work along Bartow Road got some good news and bad news today. The good: The South Crystal Lake Drive crossing will remain open for the time being. The bad: Work at other intersections is now expected to end Monday instead of tomorrow.
That’s the word county officials posted on Facebook after hearing from CSX Transportation.
The start of work Monday surprised many motorists when they discovered that Ingraham Avenue was one of the few places they could cross the tracks along the east side of U.S. 98.
Apparently CSX crews need one more day to complete the track repairs, but the company observes Good Friday as a work holiday, so the next work day is Monday.
The crossings affected are at:
- North Crystal Lake Drive
- Main Street
- Rose Street
- Orange Street
- Lake Parker Avenue
- Sylvester Road
- Commerce Point Drive
In response to a separate Facebook post by the city of Lakeland, several residents complained of congestion, extremely long trips, rear-end accidents and poor signal timing in the area of Lemon Street, Ingraham Avenue and Bartow Road.
“This is an absolute nightmare to local neighborhood residents. Ingraham is just not designed to handle the resulting traffic load with the block-apart traffic signals, and the intersection at 98 is gridlocked with left-turners off Ingraham onto 98 South,” Sarah Hardy posted. “Put extra LPD at that intersection to enforce no-gridlock, please.”
In response, a city spokesman said, “The city’s Traffic Operations Division is monitoring the US 98 corridor and has been adjusting the signal timings to move traffic as best as possible … We have also notified LPD about the left turn issue mentioned in your post.:
Here’s a look at the track maintenance, posted to Instagram by Kimberly Wyant:
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