The Lettered Streets are about to
get a little quieter. The City of Bellingham has accepted a contract with
Burlington Northern Santa Fe to create a railroad
quiet zone at the C Street crossing.
The contract has yet to be signed;
the City of Bellingham is mainly waiting for an estimated cost of installation
for the gates, arms and lights. Within six months of signing the contract, BNSF
will complete the project.
These quiet zones are at least half
a mile long, and trains cannot sound their horns here unless in case of an
emergency. They can also sound when crews are working on the track or the train
is accelerating after being stopped.
And the stop at C Street is only
the first
of six intended for the waterfront area. Other spots include F Street,
Central Street, Laurel Street, Cornwall Avenue and Pine Street. A five-spot
quiet zone is also planned for the Fairhaven area.
The C Street crossing will
cost anywhere between $15,000 and $688,000. The Waterfront Zone
construction would total between $1.3 million and $3.8 million.
We can hear the trains’ horns
throughout the night in Bellingham, so can’t the city just tell them not to
honk?
Well, train horns actually aren’t
controlled by the city, they’re controlled at the state level; in our case, the
Washington Utilities and
Transportation Commission. To alter when trains sound, a city must apply
with the Federal Railroad Administration
for a quiet zone.
Washington currently has nine
other quiet zones. For these application to be approved, the city’s plan must
pass a series of criteria,
including reporting the conditions at each crossing, seeing if the Quiet Zone
Risk Index is less than the Nationwide Significant Risk Threshold and
implementing supplemental safety measures. In the case of the C Street
crossing, this will include adding curbs, sidewalk and pavement to each side of
the crossing.
Fingers crossed that by the end of
this year, we can all sleep soundly through the night without conductors in our
dreams!
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