Waverly, Neb., may get a quiet zone

Written by jrood

The Railroad Transportation Safety District recently talked about making changes to three Waverly crossings to create a nearly three-mile long quiet zone, where trains wouldn't have to blow their horns, the Lincoln Journal Star reports. The Federal Railroad Administration requires trains to blow horns at unprotected at-grade crossings, but they can be silenced if cities create quiet zones by beefing up safety features around crossings with raised medians, lights and gates.

A consultant proposed
raised medians at the 141st and 148th street crossings and the closure of a
private drive near Millard Lumber — all of which would cost about $870,000.

Waverly officials have considered
building an overpass at 148th Street and a pedestrian walkway at 141st Street
and U.S. 6, at a cost of nearly $15 million, but the 141st Street crossing
would have had to be closed, and residents opposed that because it is the main
entrance to downtown.

Nebraska Department of
Roads officials said the project is on hold until the city has enough support
for the project and is willing to close the 141st Street crossing.

A quiet zone wouldn’t
eliminate all safety concerns, but it would address the noise.

Waverly Mayor Mike Werner
attended the RTSD meeting and said a quiet zone would improve the quality of
life in Waverly, but he questions whether it’s worth the money if an overpass
is built later.

RTSD head Roger Figard —
also Lincoln’s city engineer — suggested budgeting $10,000 for quiet zone work
and urging all entities to get together to make a decision.

The RTSD is a local
political subdivision funded by property taxes. It was created in 1971 to
improve railroad safety, particularly at crossings. Its board is composed of
three City Council members and three Lancaster County Board members.

Lincoln is believed to be
the first Nebraska city to establish a quiet zone — a six-mile stretch of
railway along Cornhusker Highway where trains no longer have to blow horns
before crossings, unless someone is near the tracks. The trains went (largely)
silent in September.

The city plans to extend
the zone to the South Salt Creek Neighborhood by closing crossings on J Street
at Second and Third streets and putting raised medians at crossings at First
and J and Third and D streets.

Figard said because the arena project passed last month, there’s more pressure to vacate
and close the J Street crossings (BNSF, from which the city is buying
considerable land for the arena, will be happy to see the crossings close). He
said the RTSD will meet with neighborhood residents again, and a vacation
ordinance has to be approved by the Planning Commission and City Council before
work can proceed.

"Railroads tolerate them (quiet
zones) and agree to them, but they certainly don’t see them as a real
improvement to their system," Figard said.

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