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train per day east of Casselton also is projected. A more recent <br />examination of electric utility contracts to purchase coal suggests that <br />these projections of train movements may be higher than the increases that <br />will be experienced by 1985. <br /> In the case study communities, if no mitigating actions are <br /> taken, the estimated increase in delay-related problems resulting from the <br /> addition of two to six trains per day and additional community growth is 5 <br /> percent to 20 percent in Casselton and communities east; a 25 percent <br /> increase in problem magnitude is projected for Beach and Hebron. Applying <br /> these percentage increases to current estimates of problem magnitude <br /> indicates that an important but not substantial increase in that magnitude <br /> may occur by 1985. The greater uncertainty associated with projections <br /> beyond 1985 makes estimates of rail/community conflicts farther into the <br /> future highly conjectural. <br /> <br />FOCUS ON LOW-COST SOLOTIONS <br /> <br /> Grade separation or rail relocation are often proposed as <br />solutions to rail/community conflicts, but both are expensive. A grade <br />separation costs upwards of $2 million to construct. In Moorhead alone, <br />set of nine grade separatiOnS were estimated to cost over $28 million in <br />1975.~/ In Sank Rapids a single grade separation at the TH-152/Benton <br />Drive intersection is estimated to cost $6 million. <br /> Rail relocation often is even more expensive. The average <br /> capital cost of rail relocations in 12 cities (sponsored by the Federal <br /> <br />Metropolitan Auto-Rail Study, Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of <br />~overnments, prepared by Bather-Rinrose-Wolsfeld, 1975. <br /> <br />12 <br /> <br /> <br />