Residents living off Bowman Avenue between the train tracks and the county bridge project thought they were trapped between a rock and hard place Tuesday morning.

A stopped Union Pacific train blocked the intersection starting about midnight and was still there at noon Tuesday.

A Facebook barrage began about 7 a.m. Tuesday from frustrated residents trying to get to work who believed themselves blocked from detouring through Kingfisher Park where gates are normally kept locked for security during the Kingfisher Winter Nights season.

However, City Manager Dave Slezickey said the gates are routinely opened by city workers when stopped trains are blocking the Bowman intersection.

And Kingfisher Police Chief David Catron said the gates were opened by his officers between 6:30 and 7 a.m. Tuesday.

“The Parks Department has been opening the park gates during the day when a train is stopped and KPD has been monitoring during the night and early morning hours to do the same thing (since the start of the county bridge project),” Slezickey said, adding that the gates remain open until the intersection is clear.

“I did have a call from an angry resident demanding the park gate be opened about 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, but she was a lot nicer when I told her the park gate was already opened and we have been trying to open the gate when trains are parked there.”

Slezickey also said an alternate route published in the newspaper before the start of the county project gives Bowman Avenue residents another option when the train is blocking the track and park gates haven’t been opened.

A map of the route also was shared on the neighborhood group app with residents in the area impacted, Slezickey said.

(The map also was reposted Tuesday on the Kingfisher Times Facebook Page.)

The city and county both have reached out to UP – and enlisted the help of elected officials – to stop or limit trains blocking the Bowman Avenue intersection for the duration of the county bridge project without much success.

“I talked to the UP goverment and community affairs rep for Oklahoma again this morning,” Slezickey said Tuesday. “Their train dispatch is highly complex and he is trying to do what he can to help out.”

However, the train was still blocking the intersection when this page went to press about noon Tuesday.

Stopped trains blocking intersections have been an ongoing issue for cities across the state and attempts at a legislative solution have been ineffective.