A company hired to help the city establish a quiet zone for trains traveling through downtown Columbus is proposing an estimated $1.7 million in upgrades at four railroad crossings.
Tim Oster of CTC of Fort Worth, Texas, presented five different options for the railroad crossings at State Road 46, Fifth Street, Eighth Street and Eleventh Street during the Columbus Redevelopment Commission meeting on Monday.
The four crossings being considered for the quiet zone are among Columbus’ 18 public and seven private active crossings. The Columbus Redevelopment Commission did not take any action on the quiet zone presentation Monday.
The approaches are all supplementary safety measures (SSM) for a quiet zone, or a section of rail line containing one or more public highway-rail grade crossings where locomotive horns are not routinely sounded. These approaches include the temporary closure of a public highway, a four-quadrant gate system, gates with a median or channelization, a one-way street with gates or the permanent closure of a public highway.
“Trains are running right now; they’re blasting their horn,” said Dave Hayward, city executive director of public works/city engineer. He said there continues to be accidents each month reported on the Louisville & Indiana tracks between Seymour and Indianapolis, which pass directly through Columbus. “The horns are kind of the lowest common denominator,” he said of the warning systems where motorists cross the tracks.
Hayward said what the city is doing is putting specific safety improvements to help each crossing be safer than each would be with just train horn warnings.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
