Traffic backs up as a train crosses over the Reed Market railroad crossing in 2014.

The plotline for this season of the Trump presidency seems to be: What will be cut next? What agency? Whose job? What funding?

Before President Trump was sworn in, the city of Bend announced in January that it had received $32 million in federal funding for the Reed Market Road railroad overcrossing. The bridge over the railroad was the big ticket item of the transportation bond voters approved in 2020. The crossing would remove a recurring inconvenience for many drivers and reduce risk.

We heard some rumblings that the money from the federal government might not be coming.

It seems it is coming.

The city told us in an email on Thursday it has not “received any indication from the Federal Rail Administration, as the awarding body from the Department of Transportation, that the funding is at risk. We as City staff meet with the FRA regularly and all planning and design efforts are continuing based on the original $1M grant that the City received. All indication is that we are still scheduled to receive the $32M once we wrap up the NEPA requirements and initial (roughly 30%) design.”

Those are some reassuring words, for now.