Traffic slowed on Freemans Bridge Road

PHOTOGRAPHER: Marc Schultz

Car traffic cautiously negotiate crossing railroad tracks and damaged railroad gates along Freeman's Bridge Rd. in Glenville on Tuesday May 12, 2015. The damaged gate caused backed up traffic for over an hour along the route.

Traffic on Freemans Bridge Road was slowed for a couple hours Tuesday afternoon after a set of railroad crossing gates stopped working.

Glenville police responded to the tracks just south of Homecrest Kitchens about 2:30 p.m. An officer directed traffic, which was reduced to one lane, town Supervisor Chris Koetzle said.

The southbound gate was down, even though no train was coming, and the northbound gate had been removed, leaving a single lane for cars to pass through.

“When I went through, pedestrians were standing on the tracks, waving people [through],” said Koetzle, who said he got through around 2:15 p.m. after a 15-minute wait.

Speaking at 2:45 p.m., Koetzle said traffic had been backed up for about an hour. The railroad company had been notified.

“It’s created quite a backup,” he said.

By 4 p.m., the issue had been resolved, with police leaving the scene and traffic flowing again.