There was no getting in or out of Bay City for several hours Friday.

There’s one way in and one way out – Wabsh Street – which crosses Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railroad tracks. BNSF shut down traffic completely during the midday Friday for several hours while the tracks were being worked on.

“They’re holding our town hostage,” Bay City Village Clerk Kim Lunda said. “There are people who have been waiting hours.”

Lunda said she was told by BNSF that one lane of traffic would be open at all times during the project.

“They lied to us,” she said.

On top of that, no one could give village officials a clear answer on when work would be completed, and BNSF corporate officials were difficult to reach on a Friday.

“An hour ago they said it would be done in a half-hour,” she said early Friday afternoon. “I called corporate, and no one answers their phone.”

As for the railroad, a spokesperson apologized for any miscommunication, but their intent had been to completely close the crossing for the repair work, which was completed Friday afternoon.

“Our Engineering team discussed the crossing closure at the beginning of last week with the Village of Bay City. The village was told that the scope of the work was to pull the crossing to allow our surfacing gang access. The work was aimed at three hours, after which our Engineering team would be able to restore half of the crossing. In regards to last week, we had a machine on standby to install a temporary crossing in case of an emergency. We are sorry for any inconvenience this work has caused,” said Courtney Wallace, Director of External Communications.