With as often as they can gnarl traffic around Columbia, trains can be a triggering topic for residents of the Midlands.

Well, focus on your happy thoughts, because getting around one of the area’s main rail lines is about to get harder for a while.

Maintenance work along a CSX Transportation line that goes through Newberry and Lexington Counties on its way into Columbia and Richland County will see a rolling wave of total closures impacting crossings along that stretch.

“We are Southern Commercial Development, LLC,” the company doing the work notes in a release. “We work with CSX Transportation providing traffic control and detour signage for railroad crossing closures which require necessary maintenance and emergency repairs. CSX Transportation has announced that they will be having a tie team starting in Richland Co on February 5, 2024 working towards Prosperity Co ending March 8, 2024. This will require a total closure of the railroad crossings. A total closure meaning no traffic will be allowed across the track until the work is complete.”

The good news is these closures will not all happen at once. The bad news is that they will begin closing Jan. 29.

“Once the railroad crossing is closed, CSX says residents can expect the closure to last at least three days, up to five days,” Lexington County details in its own release. “For the railroad crossings that are one-way in/out with residents behind them, CSX will work to have the repairs completed in 12 hours.

“To complete these repairs, a total closure of the railroad crossings is required. A total closure means that no traffic will be allowed to cross the track until the work is complete,” the release continues. “Signage and detours will be implemented to reroute traffic around these closures.”

The Lexington County closures along the line, which roughly follows Interstates 26 and 126 as they head toward Columbia, are as follows:

• Rolling Pines Road (closing on/around Jan. 31)
• Garden Valley Lane (closing on/around Jan. 31)
• St. Andres Road (closing on/around Jan. 31)
• Drury Lane (closing on/around Feb. 1)
• Challedon Drive (closing on/around Feb. 1)
• Irmo High School Bus Lot (closing on/around Feb. 1)
• Doe Trail (closing on/around Feb. 1)
• Pebble Gate (closing on/around Feb. 1)
• Palmetto Wood Parkway (closing on/around Feb. 1)
• Lake Murray Boulevard (closing on/around Feb. 1)
• Farming Creek Road (closing on/around Feb. 6)
• Salem Church Road (closing on/around Feb. 6)
• Private (near the intersection of Bickley Road and Dutch Fork Road) (closing on/around Feb. 6)
• Bickley Road (closing on/around Feb. 7)
• Rauch-Metz Rd. (closing on/around Feb. 7)
• Harvey Killian Road (closing on/around Feb. 8)
• Mt. Vernon Church Road (closing on/around Feb. 8)
• Three Dog Road (closing on/around Feb. 8)
• Lynn McCarthy Road (closing after either Old Hilton Road or Sid Bickley Road is open)
• Old Hilton Road (closing on/around Feb. 12)
• Sid Bickley Road (closing on/around Feb. 12)
• Private (near the intersection of Melanie Drive and Chapin Road) (closing on/around Feb. 12)
• Private drive to the Chapin Garden Center (closing on/around Feb. 12)
• RJ Corman Rail (closing on/around Feb. 12)
• Private (near the intersection of Primrose Lane and Chapin Road) (closing on/around Feb. 12)
• Murray Lindler Road/E Boundary Street (closing on/around Feb. 13)
• Spur/Weisz Street (closing on/around Feb. 13)
• Lexington Avenue (closing on/around Feb. 14)
• Cortland Road (closing on/around Feb. 14)
• Bayfield Lane (closing on/around Feb. 15)
• Sam Koon Road (closing on/around Feb. 15)

Also impacted will be the Saluda Riverwalk and its access road, Candi Lane, with the City of Columbia announcing that the recreational amenity will close from Jan. 29 to Jan. 31 as a result of the railroad work.

A full list of the impacted crossings is available here.