<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Locomotion commotion Riverview neighbors seek train horn quiet zone

By Andrea Damewood
Published: December 9, 2009, 12:00am
2 Photos
Steven Lane/The Columbian
A freight train passes below Jay Miller's home on Southeast Riverside Drive. Miller and neighbors are working with government officials to exempt trains from blowing their horns at a nearby railroad crossing.
Steven Lane/The Columbian A freight train passes below Jay Miller's home on Southeast Riverside Drive. Miller and neighbors are working with government officials to exempt trains from blowing their horns at a nearby railroad crossing. Photo Gallery

Normally in a meeting, persistent interruptions aren’t welcome.

But as Riverview neighborhood members gathered around the table at Jay Miller’s home to talk with officials about getting some peace and quiet, the sound of jarring train horns blasting through the house served as effective — and ironic — punctuation to their point.

The neighborhood, made up of tony homes and condos with sweeping views of the Columbia, is making the move to establish train horn quiet zones where the tracks cross Chelsea and Beach drives, joining other Vancouver areas and cities across the west.

Everywhere there are trains, there are neighbors who are tired of hearing them, said Chris Adams, Federal Railroad Administration’s grade crossing and trespass prevention manager.

The trick is finding a way to pay for peace.

To get around a 2005 federal law requiring engineers to blast their horns for 15 to 20 seconds before a crossing, additional safety measures — beyond the usual flashing lights and gates — must be installed, Adams said.

The line along the Columbia is owned by BNSF Railway and is the main track for 30 to 35 trains carrying tons of frieght daily, BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said.

He said the railway is also willing to work with neighbors in the quiet zone process.

The government says train engineers must blast their horns at a decibel level between 96 and 110 decibels; the equivalent to standing 3 feet from a chain saw. (Quiet zones don’t guarantee total silence: Engineers may still blow horns if they see something near the tracks).

Costly battle

Deterring the noise can get expensive.

“A lot of communities are looking into it,” said Adams, who oversees eight Western states for the railroad administration. “The biggest holdbacks we are finding is funding.”

Fortunately for the Riverside Neighborhood Association, the price to hear crickets at night likely won’t be very high.

On Beach Drive, the feds have given the go-ahead for the city to install 6-inch high medians on each side of the tracks. The medians are placed in the middle of the road for about 100 feet back from the crossing, making it difficult for even the most dedicated drivers to get over them, around a downed crossing gate, and into the path of an oncoming train.

Additional safety measures are necessary, Adams said. More than half of train-car accidents occur when a driver purposefully steers around a downed gate.

The total cost, with labor, is about $5,000, Vancouver traffic engineer John Manix said.

On Chelsea Drive, the same solution is being considered, but there may be a few complications: The road on one side may not be long enough for a full 100-foot median, meaning the FRA would have to grant a waiver.

Though neighbors have offered to pay for the improvements, Manix said that the work to collect the bills may prove more costly than if the city simply picks up the tab.

He said he realizes that some may think the city is spending money to serve a limited population, but countered that installing the medians is just one of many small improvements the city does all over Vancouver.

“There’s a natural desire to live near the river, so there will always be people wanting to live there,” Manix said. “We’re challenged with our budget, but not so challenged that we can’t make low-cost livability improvements.”

The cost of quiet zones is often much higher. In east Vancouver, the price tag is estimated at $1.2 million.

Some residents there are petitioning the city to form a limited improvement district to spread the cost among the 469 properties closest to the tracks.

There, the city has found four-gate crossing improvements — which add an extra gate on each side of the crossing to prevent drivers from getting onto the tracks — to be the only solution for intersections at Southeast 139th, 147th and 164th avenues. The much cheaper concrete medians cannot be used because of the crossings’ proximity to Evergreen Highway and the higher volume of traffic at those locations, Manix said.

Advocates say cost is worth it

But advocates along Evergreen Highway, and in Riverview, say the higher price is worth it.

The noise has grown worse over the past few years, said Miller, president of the Riverview Neighborhood Association.

mobile phone icon
Take the news everywhere you go.
Download The Columbian app:
Download The Columbian app for Android on Google PlayDownload The Columbian app for iOS on the Apple App Store

He was keenly aware that his lot is directly above the tracks when he built his home on Southeast Riverside Drive 13 years ago.

But he made sure his picture windows contained double- and triple-paned glass to shield the interior from the noise.

Back then, about 15 trains a day went by — now, there are two times as many, said Miller, a retired neurosurgeon.

Coupled with the required whistling rule, the silence is no more.

“We took steps to mitigate (the sound),” he said. “It didn’t (work) and now it’s driving us crazy.”

He praised the cooperation between residents, the city and the railroad administration to find a good fix for his neighborhood.

“It’s a reasonable opportunity for people to create quiet zones,” Miller said.

Loading...