Heather Wright/The Independent

CN Rail hopes it has a permanent fix to the bumpy Wyoming rail crossing. 

It’s planning the third fix of the crossing in the last decade starting Dec. 1.

The line is a major route for rail traffic from Sarnia’s CN Rail Yard – one of the busiest in the country. It cross one of Lambton County’s busiest north south routes in the middle of the urban area of Wyoming. 

The traffic pounds down the asphalt around the rail line causing big divots which drivers try to avoid.

Plympton-Wyoming Mayor Gary Atkinson says he has been getting complaints about the road “regularly.

“The last six months have been considerable amount of concern from our residents getting phone calls, people stopping you in person and talk, telling you about it,” he says.

“My major concern has been the safety of any of the residents walking on the path…because people are veering over to the right, where it’s a little better than what it is in the center.”

Atkinson says the municipality has been working with Lambton County (Broadway Street in Wyoming is part of the Oil Heritage Road – a county road) for the last eight to 10 months to get CN to repair the line. It was scheduled for repair in the spring, but was postponed.

Now, crews will be blocking off the road from Dec. 1 to 5 installing new technology which CN hopes will be a permanent fix.

“There are pre-cast forms that they’re  putting in the ground and then filling it with concrete,” said the mayor. “I don’t believe they’ve ever tried this type of procedure here before.”

Atkinson is hopeful it will end the constant breakdown of the crossing. 

The area was last repaired in July 2023. At the time, CN removed an unused siding and upgraded the crossing.

Similar work was done five years earlier, but town officials said at the time the volume of rail traffic and its sheer weight causes the earth beneath the crossing to erode, degrading the crossing.

Lambton County will soon be placing signs at the area notifying drivers of the detour route for the construction.