{"id":378100,"date":"2026-06-28T09:03:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T09:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/378100\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T09:03:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T09:03:27","slug":"major-railroad-crossing-rebuild-underway-in-fresno-whats-happening-to-dutch-bros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/378100\/","title":{"rendered":"Major railroad crossing rebuild underway in Fresno. What\u2019s happening to Dutch Bros?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city has been acquiring and demolishing property surrounding the railroad crossing near Fresno City College over the past few years to make way for a major project that will route the streets underneath the railroad tracks.<\/p>\n

The last businesses at the intersection of Blackstone and McKinley will vacate by the end of 2026, including the busy Dutch Bros Coffee,<\/a> Fresno\u2019s Director of Public Works Scott Mozier told The Bee.<\/p>\n

Utility relocation and bridge construction to lower the streets by around 25 feet to funnel traffic beneath the existing BNSF Railway tracks is expected in 2027, according to Mozier. The grade separation project was deemed necessary and announced by city officials in 2023 due to high train and vehicle traffic, numerous fatalities and serious accidents.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of several initiatives underway to revitalize the Blackstone corridor<\/a>, including reducing traffic lanes, adding bike lanes and widening sidewalks for pedestrians on the southern stretch.<\/p>\n

Dutch Bros is one of the few businesses still open within the project\u2019s footprint area, where many college students line up at the drive-thru for a caffeine fix.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A preliminary rendering looking from the northeast to southwest depicts for how both Blackstone and McKinley avenues in central Fresno will be lowered to run underneath the existing BNSF Railway tracks near Fresno City College. New bridges would carry the train tracks above the two streets. It\u2019s similar to lowered streets under the railroad tracks at Shaw and Marks avenues in northwest Fresno.<\/p>\n

The city offered $2.1 million in September 2023 for the property, then in June of 2024, the City Council adopted a resolution of necessity for eminent domain, The Bee previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear when exactly the location will close before the end of the year. Fresno\u2019s Dutch Bros franchise representatives did not respond to The Bee\u2019s requests for comment this week.<\/p>\n

The popular seller of coffee and other non-alcohol drinks was one of five properties where the city council voted unanimously to use eminent domain for the grade separation, which is a legal process a government agency can use to acquire property for a public project when the parties cannot agree on price or terms.<\/p>\n

Greenway Auto Body, one of Fresno\u2019s oldest auto shops, historically operated on the Blackstone corner, but moved its business a few months ago. The Carl\u2019s Jr. fast-food restaurant on the corner of the northwest side closed and was then destroyed by a fire<\/a> in January. A ceramics business and a smog shop also closed, all through the eminent domain process.<\/p>\n

Fresno Councilmember Annalisa Perea represents District 1, where a few residential properties were acquired by the city through a negotiated purchase agreement. She described the project as a much-needed, long-overdue traffic safety improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all deemed in the public\u2019s overall benefit for the city to acquire these parcels in order for us to complete what we needed to do to bring this project to fruition,\u201d Perea told The Bee.<\/p>\n

\"Cleared<\/p>\n

Cleared land is seen a the bottom center where a Carl\u2019s Jr. burned in January 2026, photographed Monday, June 8, 2026 in Fresno. The intersection of Blackstone and McKinley avenues with intersecting railroad is shown. The city has purchased most of the land around the intersection so it can lower the street as much as 25 feet to avoid traffic backups when trains cross.<\/p>\n

(ERIC PAUL ZAMORA\/ezamora@fresnobee.com)<\/p>\n

Each day, more than 35 trains and 42,000 vehicles pass through these intersections, which often leads to congestion.<\/p>\n

Other project elements include additional landscaping, decorative concrete improvements, bike lanes and walkways.<\/p>\n

When Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer announced the project in 2023, he said four people had been killed by trains at the crossing in the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

\"Fresno<\/p>\n

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, second from right, announces that the city received an $80 million grant from the California State Transportation Agency to help pay for separating at-grade railroad crossings at Blackstone and McKinley avenues. Also at the July 6, 2023, announcement at Fresno City Hall were, from left, Public Works Director Scott Mozier, City Manager Georgeanne White, and City Council Vice President Annalisa Perea.<\/p>\n

Studies from the early 1970s determined that it would be best for the streets to go under the railroad, Moizer said, but it wasn\u2019t until the city secured funding that the project could be put into motion.<\/p>\n

The cost is about $162 million. Fresno was awarded $80 million in state funding after the intersection was ranked the fifth-highest priority location in California for a railroad grade separation. Most of the rest of the money is coming from Measure C, Fresno County\u2019s sales tax supplement for transportation projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it does have a hefty price tag, if it saves one life at the end of the day, then it was all worth it,\u201d Perea said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city has been acquiring and demolishing property surrounding the railroad crossing near Fresno City College over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2055,46638,5694,112,1907,114,113,123315,153030,121839,114230,81126],"class_list":["post-378100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-blackstone","tag-dutch-bros-coffee","tag-eminent-domain","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-city-college","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-grade-separation","tag-grade-separation-project","tag-public-works-scott-mozier","tag-railroad-crossing","tag-railroad-tracks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}