Major railroad crossing rebuild underway in Fresno. What’s happening to Dutch Bros?
The city has been acquiring and demolishing property surrounding the railroad crossing near Fresno City College over the past few years to make way for a major project that will route the streets underneath the railroad tracks.
The last businesses at the intersection of Blackstone and McKinley will vacate by the end of 2026, including the busy Dutch Bros Coffee, Fresno’s Director of Public Works Scott Mozier told The Bee.
Utility relocation and bridge construction to lower the streets by around 25 feet to funnel traffic beneath the existing BNSF Railway tracks is expected in 2027, according to Mozier. The grade separation project was deemed necessary and announced by city officials in 2023 due to high train and vehicle traffic, numerous fatalities and serious accidents.
It’s one of several initiatives underway to revitalize the Blackstone corridor, including reducing traffic lanes, adding bike lanes and widening sidewalks for pedestrians on the southern stretch.
Dutch Bros is one of the few businesses still open within the project’s footprint area, where many college students line up at the drive-thru for a caffeine fix.
The city offered $2.1 million in September 2023 for the property, then in June of 2024, the City Council adopted a resolution of necessity for eminent domain, The Bee previously reported.
It remains unclear when exactly the location will close before the end of the year. Fresno’s Dutch Bros franchise representatives did not respond to The Bee’s requests for comment this week.
The popular seller of coffee and other non-alcohol drinks was one of five properties where the city council voted unanimously to use eminent domain for the grade separation, which is a legal process a government agency can use to acquire property for a public project when the parties cannot agree on price or terms.
Greenway Auto Body, one of Fresno’s oldest auto shops, historically operated on the Blackstone corner, but moved its business a few months ago. The Carl’s Jr. fast-food restaurant on the corner of the northwest side closed and was then destroyed by a fire in January. A ceramics business and a smog shop also closed, all through the eminent domain process.
Fresno Councilmember Annalisa Perea represents District 1, where a few residential properties were acquired by the city through a negotiated purchase agreement. She described the project as a much-needed, long-overdue traffic safety improvement.
“It was all deemed in the public’s overall benefit for the city to acquire these parcels in order for us to complete what we needed to do to bring this project to fruition,” Perea told The Bee.
Each day, more than 35 trains and 42,000 vehicles pass through these intersections, which often leads to congestion.
Other project elements include additional landscaping, decorative concrete improvements, bike lanes and walkways.
When Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer announced the project in 2023, he said four people had been killed by trains at the crossing in the past 10 years.
Studies from the early 1970s determined that it would be best for the streets to go under the railroad, Moizer said, but it wasn’t until the city secured funding that the project could be put into motion.
The cost is about $162 million. Fresno was awarded $80 million in state funding after the intersection was ranked the fifth-highest priority location in California for a railroad grade separation. Most of the rest of the money is coming from Measure C, Fresno County’s sales tax supplement for transportation projects.
“While it does have a hefty price tag, if it saves one life at the end of the day, then it was all worth it,” Perea said.