A portable message board is now reminding drivers along southbound U.S. 29 not to block the railroad crossing in Gainesville.
Virginia Department of Transportation officials said the sign was necessary after two accidents involving trains and vehicles on the Norfolk Southern crossing in Gainesville in the past 45 days.
“We are also looking into other options to enhance safety at this crossing,” VDOT district construction engineer Helen Cuervo said in a press release.
U.S. 29 in Gainesville was closed in both directions for hours Friday after a train struck a truck near U.S. 55. There were no injuries according to police, but the accident stopped traffic on U.S. 29 and those entering and exiting Interstate 66.
Police charged the truck driver, 66-year-old Timothy Rollie Bristown, of Atlee Road in Warrenton, with failure to obey a highway sign, said Prince William County police spokesman Jonathan Perok.
Friday’s train accident was the second on U.S. 29 in little more than a month. On Dec. 9, a train hit a truck in the same place.
VDOT has had detours in place in that area as part of work on the Gainesville interchange. The project entails constructing two overpasses, one carrying U.S. 29 over the railroad tracks and one carrying Linton Hall Road and Gallerher Road over both U.S. 29 and the railroad tracks.
The entire road project, which also includes widening portions of U.S. 29 to six lanes, is scheduled to be complete in 2015.
A video of what the completed interchange will look like is available on VDOT’s website.
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