PARIS — The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad Co. intends to replace a worn-out railroad crossing on Nichols Street in the coming weeks. 

No precise date for the replacement, however, has been confirmed by SL&A, which owns the crossing, despite repeated inquiries from town officials. 

In an Oct. 7 message on the town’s website, Highway Director Daniel Nowell announced that SL&A planned to briefly close off the street between the middle and end of October to replace the crossing. 

An SL&A representative did not return a request for comment Tuesday.

The Nichols Street crossing is in need of repair or replacement. Wooden beams laid between the tracks as a buffer are broken and splintered, leaving the rails exposed. Vehicles often reduce speed over the tracks to ease the jagged crossing. 

Terry Appt, who owns Terry’s Corner Variety just down the street from the crossing, said few of her customers complain about the crossing’s deterioration.

The conditions on all the railroad crossings in town have been so bad for so long, people have mainly gotten used to them, she said. 

“It’s about time,” she said. “It should have been done a long time ago.”

She usually doesn’t think too much about the shape of the crossing until delivery trucks drive across the battered stretch.

“The whole store shakes,” she said. 

pmcguire@sunjournal.com

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