I agree, they aren't very nice to look at. I'll ask the building department about who owns it and who is responsible for their upkeep. No promises, but it would be nice to at least know whose responsibility it is to keep them in good repair.

It's about time someone brought this up! The overpasses have looked horrible since the 70's, and even back then they refused to paint them. I agree with the original poster on the city suing the railroad to make them paint them.

You're not far off the mark with your comment about legal action. The railroad company is responsible for upkeep, but for years they have refused. It's starting to become a safety issue though, and I've talked at length with Mayor Taylor about getting them to do something about it. Thanks for the comment!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I did contact Mayor Taylor regarding these train overpasses. He very diligently sent letters to both Senator Brown and the railroad companies detailing the dangerous problems and demanding that they fix them in a timely manner.

I'm not sure if this will lead to a final solution, but my hat's off to the Mayor for continuing to try and get them to do something about it.

A meeting was held on October 15th, 2010 at Amherst City Hall between three representatives of Norfolk Southern and various members of the city administration including Mayor Dave Taylor, Safety Service Director Dennis Clotz, Amherst Police Chief Lonnie Dillon, Amherst Fire Chief Wayne Northeim, Utilities Superintendant Ron Merthe, Amherst Ward 3 Councilman Joe Gambish, and myself.

The Committee addressed the needs of each overpass individually, with the one on Milan Avenue receiving the most attention. I personally feel the Milan overpass is a public eye sore, this is Norfolk Southern property, and they should be held accountable and liable for any cost incurred. Unfortunately, Norfolk Southern has different views, and we were unsuccessful in finding some middle ground on repair and maintenance items concerning Milan. We did agree to explore some sort of public/private partnership for a beautification program on all the overpasses and structural repairs on two others.

On October 30th I met with the Mayor again and we jointly agreed that an independent inspection should be performed by PUCO on all five overpasses within the City. Right now there are five items we are working on:

1.Norfolk Southern discussed and agreed to the planning and replacement of the superstructure of the Lake Street underpass and anticipate scheduling the work for 2011.
2.Norfolk Southern will evaluate and design foundation repair for two columns of the western interior bend of the West Street structure. Once the design is complete, Norfolk Southern will coordinate the repair work with the city. This is also scheduled for 2011.
3.Negotiating a beautification program for painting overpasses within the city.
4.Requesting an independent inspection from PUCO for all five overpasses within the city.
5.Collaborate with our elected state and federal officials to explore funding and alternate revenue streams to assist in the maintenance and beautification of the overpasses within our City.

Theses overpasses have been neglected for eons until I brought them to the attention of the administration and got the ball moving with PUCO. For progress reports and information please go to amherstcitynews.com Glenn Loughrie Amherst City Council

End of 2011, and nothing has been done! Thanks, Norfolk Southern! They sure have the time to update their Facebook page, but not enough time to fix the got-dang overpasses!

Once again..... end of 2012, and nothing has been done by Norfolk Southern! Unbelievable! The overpasses are getting rustier and uglier every year!

Can't believe it's been almost 3 years since NS was contacted, and nothing has been done. Dangerous cracked sidewalls and ugly/rotting overpasses. Nothing has been fixed. Just goes to show you that corporate greed triumphs over everything. Like I said 2 years ago, they have time to update their Facebook page hourly, but not enough time to fix the overpasses! Learn how to maintain your property, NS. As Glenn mentioned above, NS was supposed to do all these repairs in 2011, and they were never done.

Almost 5 YEARS and absolutely nothing has been done. The overpasses are still ugly and rusty with paint chipping off of them and the support walls are crumbling and look absolutely terrible. I hear people talking about the support walls along Tenney near the Party Shop all the time about how they look very unsafe.

Norfolk Southern claims they care about the safety and appearance of their railroads, yet it seems nothing is done to maintain the appearance or the support walls.

AConcernedCitizen here. 5 years of prodding Norfolk Southern to do something about the @#$% poor appearance of the overpasses and support walls has went nowhere. I just have a very hard time believing that a multi million/billion dollar company can't hire a crew to come out to these overpasses and inspect/paint them. It's not just Amherst, either. I see NS overpasses in other cities and states that are in deplorable condition compared to other railroad companies' overpasses and property. Allowing paint to fade, chip and fall off for 40 years is completely unacceptable to a city that strives to maintain a neat and clean appearance in order to keep property values up and people happy.

I give up. I will leave this open for others to comment.

I really hope our new mayor pushes Norfolk to take care of these eye sores once and for all! They all look terrible except the new one!

You got to love how this has dragged on for 6 years and nothing has been done. New mayor refuses to comment on what will be done when I emailed him about this. What is so hard about suing the railroad for blighting our city so they can be forced by the courts to come and fix their overpasses and walls? NS is by far one of the most irresponsible railroad companies in the country. I drive all over for my job and CSX owned overpasses and walls are ALL well maintained and freshly painted on a regular basis! Meanwhile, all the NS owned ones are terrible!