INDOT advances long-awaited Trax Rail Overpass projects
8/18/2025
By Julie Sneider, Senior Editor
Indiana Department of Transportation’s (INDOT) Local Trax Rail Overpass Program is well on its way to help improve vehicle mobility and rail safety in a state that ranks fifth highest in the nation for the number of collisions at grade crossings.
Created in 2018 as part of an overarching state plan to reduce crashes and injuries at Indiana grade crossings, the Trax program has provided grants to cities, towns and counties for projects that create grade separations, close crossings and complete other safety improvements at public crossings. INDOT manages the Trax projects from beginning to end.
The program has awarded $125 million in funding to 11 communities for 12 grade separations that will close 30 crossings, according to Jason Holder, INDOT’S local public agency assistant director and the program manager who oversees Trax-funded projects.
Indiana is home to over 7,000 public and private crossings, the fifth highest in the United States. The state had 106 collisions at rail crossings in 2024, according to Operation Lifesaver Inc.’s latest report, which cites preliminary 2024 Federal Railroad Administration statistics. Among those collisions, 14 people died and 32 were injured, according to OLI’s report. (Ranking No. 1 for collisions in 2024 was Texas, which had 283 collisions, 20 deaths and 81 injuries.)
Indiana ranks high for its number of grade crossings because of its proximity to Chicago, the nation’s intersection for freight-rail transportation, says Holder.
The most recently completed INDOT Trax program-funded project was located in Hobart, Indiana, where an overpass was constructed over CN track to eliminate a grade crossing. Indiana Department of Transportation“Everything passes through us,” he says. “It doesn't matter if you're going north and south, it doesn’t matter if you’re going east and west. Everything, especially on rail lines, leads to Chicago.”
The Trax program is one tool to help reduce the conflicts that occur between freight railroads and local communities as commerce moves along rail lines. INDOT reviewed dozens of applications for the funding and selected the 11 communities based on their proposed projects’ cost and how well the crossing separations would improve mobility and accessibility.
From a mobility and safety standpoint, there are several Indiana communities that are severely impacted by railroad operations, Holder says. At the same time, he acknowledges that when it comes to eliminating crossings by building expensive highway overpasses, $125 million doesn’t go very far.
So, Holder and INDOT worked with the Trax program participants to find additional financial resources to fund their projects, including through the federal government’s Railroad Crossing Elimination Grants, which provide funding for highway-rail or pathway-rail grade crossing improvements; and the Section 130 Rail-Highway Crossing Program, which distributes federal dollars for projects aimed at eliminating hazards at public grade crossings. Additionally, the railroads whose crossings are involved in those projects contribute to their cost.
Today, $256 million is the total cost of the projects that INDOT is delivering through Trax, according to Holder. In addition, CN, CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway have been partners and invested in Trax overpass efforts.
Millions of dollars in state awards
Most of the Trax projects are located in northern Indiana, the most “rail-heavy” portion of the state, says Holder. The following are the communities that received Trax awards, plus the amounts: Gary, $15.2 million; Terre Haute, $13.5 million; La Porte, $6.2 million; Elkhart, $12.3 million; Elkhart County, $14 million; Schererville, $6 million; Hammond, $5.5 million; Wells County, $4.6 million; Hobart, $5.6 million; and Wabash, $7.1 million.
Two Trax projects have been completed so far, which eliminated one grade crossing apiece. The most recently completed effort was in Hobart, where Superior Construction built an overpass at Colorado Street, “transforming a hazardous level crossing into a safe, modern bridge that improves community mobility,” the firm posted on Instagram earlier this year.
The project to create the bridge over CN track included construction of a two-span concrete bulb-tee beam bridge; installation of a 10-foot wide pedestrian sidewalk; single-lane traffic configuration in each direction; installation of 24,000 square feet of retaining walls to support the embankments; and construction of 4,000 square feet of precast modular T-wall retaining structures, according to the company’s post.
An INDOT Trax program-funded rail overpass was completed last year in Kosciusko County, Indiana. The bridge was built over Norfolk Southern Railway track.Indiana Department of TransportationThe other completed Trax project is in Kosciusko County and involved the construction of an overpass that crosses NS tracks in Milford. Construction started on that $10 million project in early 2023 and was completed in August 2024.
“Norfolk Southern was pleased to partner with members of the legislature, local governments and the Indiana Department of Transportation in the creation and implementation of this program,” said Derek Sublette, NS assistant vice president of government relations, in a statement provided by Holder to RailPrime. “This unique public-private partnership improves safety and mobility by promoting the consolidation of at-grade crossings and improvements in local infrastructure.”
Five more Trax projects are under construction, with two more in the pre-construction phases. Holder anticipates all but one of the remaining Trax projects will be under construction by sometime in 2026.
Pluses and minuses of ongoing construction
Those remaining projects will be more complex because they’re in more densely populated and developed communities that necessitate street closures and traffic reroutes during overpass construction, as well as greater environmental and permitting requirements.
Some also will have greater impact on rail operations, such as projects in the city of Elkhart, where NS has a substantial rail yard. The so-called Hively Avenue Overpass project calls for eliminating an existing grade crossing by construction of an overpass to carry a realigned East Hively Avenue (also known as State Road 18) over South Main Street, the NS railroad and Sterling and Hammond avenues.
According to a project fact sheet from the city, the project will improve safety, as NS trains regularly stop on tracks, which restricts vehicular traffic for long periods and delays emergency vehicles on either side of the tracks. Trains typically run through crossings in the area 70 to 100 times per day, according to the city.
“A rail yard creates congestion for people, which creates blocked crossings,” Holder says. “And that’s where you see a lot of kids walking under trains and things like that because they get so used to seeing trains there.”
Meanwhile, another Trax project in the works is in Wabash, Indiana, which is bisected by a series of grade crossings over NS tracks, according to an INDOT description of the project. Slow or stopped trains in the area often present mobility and safety hazards, especially in the city’s southern half. For example, when a crossing is blocked, the nearest detour for emergency vehicles is over 5 miles east of the city.
The Trax project in Wabash calls for a grade-separated bridge crossing for vehicular and pedestrian traffic on East Street, while closing vehicle access at three other grade crossings in the city.
Two of the 12 Trax projects will involve relocating highways. One of those, the Governor’s Parkway Railroad Overpass project slated for the city of Hammond, received approval in May under the federal National Environmental Policy Act and is moving into the property acquisition phase, city officials announced in a May 2 press release. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2027, with completion anticipated in 2028, according to a Hammond city website.
That nearly $17 million project, which is being funded entirely by state and federal dollars, will create an overpass over NS track and will eliminate two grade crossings to address long-term train blockages and concerns for pedestrians, vehicular and emergency services traffic.
As a former railroader himself — Holder worked for CSX for a number of years — he understands both sides of the blocked crossings issue. He also appreciates the sensitivities that go along with major projects like building a railroad overpass that disrupts a community during construction.
But in the end, the goal of such projects is to improve safety, convenience, mobility and the local economy for these communities and, at the same time, make the railroads’ operations more efficient.
While it will be some time before INDOT can adequately assess how much of a difference the Trax Rail Overpass Program has made when it’s entirely completed, Holder has received positive anecdotal feedback about the first two completed projects.
“As far as safety [improvement] is concerned, that will play out over time,” says Holder. But he has heard that some logistic businesspeople are looking at possible development in those communities because they know their vehicles won’t be delayed by blocked crossings.
“[The projects] have opened up these areas so that people now know that if they leave at a certain time in the morning, they’re going to get somewhere on time because they don’t have to worry about a train sitting at a diamond [crossing] waiting from someone else to come through,” he says.
