It's been called the "train from hell" a "nightmare," "stupid," "a joke."
Work started Tuesday on the Allen Road Grade Separation, a two-year road reconstruction project in Woodhaven that Wayne County officials say will fix a longtime commuter nightmare.
The railroad tracks along Allen Road just north of Van Horn in Woodhaven will eventually be elevated over the road.
The first part of the job involves moving fiber-optic cables. There are two separate projects, one for the road and another which includes building a pump station and moving utility, water and sewer lines. When complete, the grade separation projects will create a separate bridge for the CN railroad line.
"The time has come to relieve this problem in a permanent way," Wayne County Public Services Director Oladayo Akinyemi said. "The process of getting there is not going to be the most convenient one, we want people to be prepared to have some patience, it's a temporary problem for a long term solution."
The project will take roughly two years to complete and cost about $65-million.
Wayne County says more than 30,000 vehicles, including 2,140 commercial trucks, use that section of Allen Road daily. The average delays for drivers caused by stopped trains is just over 9 minutes, but it's not uncommon for some stoppages to last 45 minutes or more.