Blocked Crossings LLC was established in 2022 to provide an integrated web-based system to notify emergency and life-safety agencies about the real-time status of railroad crossings. Using cameras with embedded software linked to a common cloud-based server, this information is available to anyone with access to the internet. 

Elkhart County is uniquely positioned along one of the busiest railroad corridors in the United States. On a typical day, approximately 100 trains pass through this area with many of them more than two miles long. Norfolk Southern’s yard in Elkhart results in an extraordinary amount of materials being transported by rail through our community. The number and length of trains means that rail crossings in our community are often blocked by moving or stopped trains. Ideally grade separations can eliminate those intersections, but that is expensive, disruptive and not practical in most cases. 

Living and driving in Elkhart County requires all of us to coexist with the trains. Hundreds of hours of productivity are lost waiting for trains to pass through, and all too commonly stopped trains create extreme inconveniences and, on occasion, unsafe situations. 

Blocked Crossings LLC provides a solution to reduce these inconveniences and life-safety dangers by incorporating technology to monitor the status of these intersections and provide this information quickly, in real-time, via the internet to emergency vehicles and dispatch centers, as well as motorists.

In December 2024, monitoring of eight intersections in Jackson Township, south of the city of Goshen, was activated and made available to the public. Funding and assistance for this project was provided by Elkhart County with major support from the Elkhart County Highway Department. We look forward to bringing this capability to other communities across the country that find themselves in a similar situation. To learn more, email blockedcrossings@gmail.com, or visit the Contact page.