New railroad crossing malfunctions, causing morning commute nightmare on Manatee Avenue

If you were coming west into downtown Bradenton on Friday morning during rush hour on Manatee Avenue, your traffic woes were due to the new CSX Railroad crossing.

The crossing arms were stuck in the down position, causing traffic to back up to the First Street intersection, as well as northbound congestion for drivers trying to get to Manatee Avenue.

Motorists reaching the crossing were bailing both in the north and southward directions, causing further backup delays in alternative westbound directions.

The Bradenton Police Department arrived on the scene at about 8:40 a.m. to help direct traffic while the department contacted CSX to resolve the issue. The Florida Department of Transportation is also aware of the problem.

JoAnn May, FDOT communications specialist, said CSX made the repairs later Friday morning and traffic was flowing normally.

“We don’t have any details on what may have caused the problem,” May said. “We didn’t get any reports of major impacts to traffic, but it was definitely an inconvenience to drivers this morning.”

CSX did not immediately return a comment for what went wrong.

The new design of the crossing arms does not allow for traffic to drive around the arms to get through.

This story was originally published August 10, 2018 at 9:14 AM.