Pico Rivera kicks off grade separation project
Written by jrood
Robert Perez was out riding his bike Friday, but like a line of cars behind him, he got stuck on Passons Boulevard at Slauson Avenue when a freight train stopped on the tracks ahead, according to The Whittier, Calif., Daily News. The scenario happens almost daily, officials said. Passenger and freight trains cross the intersection on two sets of tracks at frequent intervals, and once the railroad company, BNSF, adds a third track, train crossings will only increase, officials said.
To cope with growing
train traffic, the city is moving forward with a grade separation project.
Trains will pass over the busy, two-lane street on a bridge, officials said,
separating vehicles and pedestrians from railroads and eliminating the need for
locomotives to blow their whistles.
"That would be
good," Perez said as he waited for the train to start moving again. He
lives nearby and said the loud train whistles are a nuisance.
Officials held a
groundbreaking ceremony for the project Oct. 30 in the parking lot of the
Rivera Villa apartment complex, which is now vacant and will be torn down to
make way for the bridge.
"There could be up
to 100 extra trains when they put in that third rail," said City Manager
Chuck Fuentes. "This is the probably biggest public works project in the
history of the city."
The $43.4-million
project, paid for mostly by federal and state funds, will begin the week of
Nov. 2 with demolition of surrounding buildings and should be complete in about
18 to 20 months, officials said.
The project is part of
the Alameda Corridor-East Trade Corridor, a larger effort to create grade
separations along railway and street crossings for safety, environmental and
traffic congestion relief purposes, officials said.
"We have been
fighting for many years in Washington to be able to have additional grade
separations," said Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs, who
said she has 54 grade separation projects in the 38th Congressional District.
"We’re getting one more project off the books; now we need to move on to
another one."
There are 130 grade
separation projects either identified or under way throughout Los Angeles, San
Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties, costing a total of $3 billion,
officials said.
"It’s imperative
that something like this gets completed," said Mayor Pro-Tem Bob
Archuleta. "Safety has to be at the forefront."
