These 7 railroad crossings may close in Biloxi

Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich released a list Friday of seven railroad crossings he thinks should close. Five of them are east of Interstate 110 and two others are just west of it.

A public hearing on the closures will follow the City Council’s 1:30 meeting Tuesday. The council will be asked to vote on the closures.

The meeting comes just two weeks after four people died at the Main Street crossing when the tour bus that had brought them to Biloxi became stuck on the railroad tracks and was hit by a CSX train.

Main Street isn’t one of the crossings the mayor suggests closing. Those are:

1. Nixon Street

2. Holley Street

3. Iroquois Street

4. Keller Avenue

5. Dorries Street

6. Querens Avenue

7. Delauney Street

Under the mayor’s proposal, CSX and MDOT will help Biloxi build new streets parallel to the train tracks to eliminate dead-end streets where crossings are closed.

CSX asked Biloxi to close the crossings if the city wants consideration of two new crossings at the Popp’s Ferry connection in west Biloxi and the Pine Street connection in East Biloxi.

On the agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting are a zoning change for the Belle La Vie mixe- use community in Woolmarket, which was tabled at the last meeting, and a proposal to change the name of Lopez Park on Benachi Avenue to the Clare Sekul Hornsby Biloxi Lions Club Park, in honor of the Biloxi attorney who died recently.

This story was originally published March 17, 2017 at 2:57 PM with the headline "These 7 railroad crossings may close in Biloxi."