“If the City of Sheffield or Colbert County Commission choose to go through grant cycles, we’re looking at several years before this could happen, but you’ve got to start, and tonight is a start. “These are not construction drawings, these are plans,” NACOLG Executive Director Keith Jones said. NACOLG has selected the Volkert engineering firm to look at five potential sites for an overpass in Sheffield and an underpass in Tuscumbia. “I said this has been a problem for 56 years and we’ve never addressed it.” The overpass and the last two cars of the train fell onto Tlhuac Avenue near Olivos station, killing 26 people and injuring 98 others. “I said, ‘ma’am, when did this happen?’ She said 1964, and I just couldn’t believe it,” Sorrell said. Sorrell said the woman told him her cousin almost died on the way to the hospital in an ambulance after getting stuck at a railroad crossing. “I knocked the door of this elderly lady and I was telling her how much I wanted to get an overpass built in Sheffield because it’s right on the way to the hospital,” Sorrell said. State Representative Andrew Sorrell gave his thoughts on how an overpass could essentially save lives.
There have been conversations about constructing a railroad overpass in Colbert County for decades, with many drivers saying it would help improve the flow of traffic when a train is moving through.Īt a public meeting Tuesday evening, the Northwest Alabama Council of Local Governments gave the public a chance to view renderings of what an overpass could look like. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.ĬOLBERT COUNTY, Ala. A Mexico City Metro overpass collapsed, sending part of a train plunging onto the road below, trapping cars and killing at least 23 people. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.