City hires company to help establish train quiet zones downtown

A new company has been hired to shepherd the city through its application to establish a quiet zone for trains traveling through downtown Columbus.

The Columbus Redevelopment Commission agreed Monday to pay up to $41,721 to CTC of Fort Worth, Texas, for a two-step contract to help the city quiet the horns from trains passing through the city.

The first phase in an 18-month process would analyze the four rail crossings at State Road 46/State Road 11, and Fifth, Eighth and 11th street crossings and prepare paperwork for federal officials. The second phase would involve handling applications for physical improvements to the crossings, estimated costs and timelines.

Once the consulting work is done, overall cost to the city would potentially be $250,000 per railroad crossing, making the total cost to eliminate train horns in the downtown area at about $1 million, said Dave Hayward, executive director of public works and city engineer.

Money has already been set aside by the Columbus Area Metropolitan Planning Organization to pay for the improvements, but the eventual actual cost to upgrade all four crossings to the railroad’s specifications is yet to be determined, Hayward said. The city has not yet committed to do the improvements, only to hire CTC to determine how to proceed and what the cost will be.

For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.