The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad stands to receive a great deal from the City of Butler and Butler County regarding the deteriorated South Main Street Bridge, which has been closed since April. The railroad shouldn't stymie the deal by refusing responsibility for some construction cost overruns.

Yet that is the troubling attitude to which the railroad, which owns the span, seems to be ascribing.

While the railroad has agreed to incur costs associated with raising the road bed and bridge deck, to provide an additional three feet of clearance for trains, it is balking at paying for other cost overruns, if there are any.

Jim Coulter, city solicitor, said negotiations with the railroad were continuing, but he downplayed previously stated prospects that the bridge might be reopened soon.

The solicitor was referring to a stipulation that the railroad have the current bridge reopened at a five-ton weight limit 90 days from the agreement's acceptance by the railroad, city and county commissioners.

The proposed agreement calls for the city to borrow $300,000 from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Loan Fund for engineering and design of a replacement span. At the request of the city and county, the bridge then would be placed on the bridge-replacement list of the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission.

It is estimated that $1.5 million would be borrowed for the bridge replacement, with a total of $1.8 million to be reimbursed under a program that is funded 80 percent by the federal government and 15 percent by the state.

The remaining 5 percent - $90,000 - would be divided among the railroad, county and city, with the city and county's top cost not to exceed $30,000.

But all of the time, effort and legwork that have been devoted to fashioning the proposed agreement is being threatened by the railroad's reluctance to sign on to the accord.

It is understandable that the railroad would be fearful of an open-ended potential liability, but there are options for alleviating such fears, such as by the railroad having a voice in weighing issues that could produce additional costs, or by specifying a specific dollar amount that the railroad would be willing to pay, if an overrun cannot be avoided.

Yet at this juncture there can be no guarantee that the project bidding would not produce a construction dollar amount lower than current estimates.

For the railroad, the proposed agreement is a means for avoiding a lengthy legal defense in the courts and before the state over its refusal to incur the full costs of replacing its span. For the city, avoiding the legal battle would avoid some of the major traffic headaches that will present themselves once the Wayne Street Viaduct replacement project gets under way.

When the bridge is open, South Monroe Street is a busy connector for the motoring public between the city's South Side and points north and east. Its availability reduces the time for police, firefighters and ambulances to reach South Side emergency calls. In some instances, the absence of the bridge has added to the time needed for ambulances to transport ill or injured people to Butler Memorial Hospital.

The railroad has a right to act on behalf of its own best interests, but it also has a responsibility to cooperate with the communities in which it is a corporate entity - helping to advance their best interests whenever possible.

The bridge already has been closed for much too long, causing much inconvenience to pedestrian traffic as well as to motorists. A total of 125 residents have signed a petition urging that the stalemate over the bridge end.

The railroad should strive to make the proposed agreement work, not be an obstruction like the barriers currently blocking access to the span.