Officials not content to simply wait up to 18 months for quad gates
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in Chief
With each horn-blaring train that passes through the heart of Burlington, city officials become more determined to quell the noise.
However, with each move the city makes in an attempt to restore the quiet zone that was in place until late June, a new challenge seems to pop up.
That was the assessment offered last week by City Administrator Kevin Lahner, who said city officials and consulting engineers are spending a “tremendous amount of time” searching for solutions that will appease the Federal Railroad Commission.
Earlier this month the city’s request for a temporary extension of the quiet zone was rejected by the FRC, leaving the city to wait as long as 18 months for the Canadian National Railroad to install quad safety gates at the Milwaukee Avenue crossing. That installation is expected to achieve the desired number of points the city needs under the federal safety risk index to restore the quiet zone.
However, the prospect of waiting up to 18 months to silence the horns – in an area of the city where redevelopment of a hotel, banquet facility and apartment complex was predicated on the quiet zone – does not sit well with Lahner, Mayor Bob Miller and other city officials.
Now the city is dealing with the complicated safety risk index (see related story) as it searches for temporary fixes that could restore the quiet zone until the quad gates are installed.
A bit of history
The city lost its quiet zone status in late June after missing a deadline to have safety upgrades in place at its railroad crossings. City officials have blamed the missed deadline on a typographical error appearing on a planning spreadsheet that led officials to believe the deadline was in 2014 rather than 2013.
Since then the train horns have been blaring as locomotives approach each of the city’s five crossings up to 26 times a day.
City officials have gotten an earful from residents and business owners – especially those living close to the tracks – about the noise and the disruption to their lives.
“We’re literally begging for more clarity (on the risk index),” Lahner said of the city’s plea to railroad regulators. “It’s obvious that if we don’t meet the number, we don’t get the quiet zone.”
A temporary fix?
The city has already complied with safety upgrades at the Adams Street and Jefferson Street crossings by installing 100-foot medians that prevent vehicles from attempting to drive around the rail crossing gates that drop each time a train passes.
It could also install medians at the Milwaukee Avenue and Robert Street crossings and achieve a rating that would likely restore the quiet zone, according to Mayor Miller. But, in the case of the Milwaukee Avenue crossing, those medians would effectively cut off a lane of traffic from the ability to enter and exit three businesses – Bear Realty, Fred’s Parkview and the Charcoal Grill.
Because Fred’s and the Charcoal grill have alternate egress points off Chestnut Street a case could be made for installing the medians temporarily until the quad gates arrive, Lahner said.
However, in the case of Bear Realty, the city must find another entrance point to justify the use of a median at Milwaukee Avenue.
Lahner said the city is exploring all options that could accomplish that goal, but none of the options will be easily achieved.
“It’s a stopgap measure that possibly gets us to our (risk index) number,” he said.
Although the city is ultimately to blame for missing the safety upgrade deadline, Lahner said officials must keep searching for a temporary fix or risk serious damage to the economic development that has occurred downtown in the past decade.
He said a permanent or long-term loss of the quiet zone would “basically put a hotel and an apartment complex out of business.”
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If this is all that stands in the way, perhaps it’s time to end left-hand turns from Milwaukee Ave at this intersection. It seems the biggest cause of traffic congestion at Milwaukee/Pine is due to people trying to enter these businesses or turning left on Pine.
So this is all that’s been holding this up like M says? And its Bear Realty again? Do they run this town? Who are they. They seem to always be getting sweet deals from the city. Didn’t they hire a former mayor to after he left office after he approved selling that problem site now for nothing to them?
Get rid of that driveway by the tracks at that Bear Realty it always ruins traffic flow. Let them pay the minimal amount for a driveway on the other street like they should have in the first place.
Why are we always paying one way or another for Bear Realty?
I was Just Eating Lunch at a Resturant next to the Tracks
And a Train Came thru
Have a Warning Light Go On inside the Resturant
and waiteresses tell the Customers to Put On the Ear Plugs provided at each Table ..
I Got Titnituts- Ringing in the Ear from being In the Army and I don’t Want anyone else to get this Problem.. and Loud Noises is One of the Causes of it..
Why not Ban Trains downtown?
Lake Geneva Got theirs Shut Down yrs ago.,
That whole Section of the CN train station looks like a Mess and a Real Junky area anyway..and what’s with those Silo’s? Move them out as well..
All that area needs is Some Horse and Wagons with Corn on them..
why reroute a railroad just because of a little noise. there is nowhere that they could put the tracks around town
That is what they said about the Hwy 36 bypass too.
Get rid of the trains … create another bike path!
would you rather have thousands of semis on the road just because you dont like a little noise. cant have everything your way
fund it if you want it