Edmond Budgets for Quiet Zone Study
Feasibility Study Planned for Next Fiscal Year
Edmond is responding to requests from citizens about the feasibility of quiet zones by including funds in next year’s budget for a study that would evaluate the options and costs. A quiet zone is a railroad grade crossing at which trains are prohibited from sounding their horns in order to decrease the noise level for nearby residential neighborhoods.
The use of train horns is required by federal law, and they can only be silenced when other safety measures compensate for the absence of horns. The additional safety measures must meet federal specifications and must adequately overcome the decrease in safety created by silencing the train horns.
Edmond is budgeting $70,000 to fund the study to evaluate the effectiveness and costs associated with different safety measures for the 11 Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad grade crossings. Railroad gates and switches also have to be evaluated to determine if they are capable of providing for the measures identified by the study.
Edmond taxpayers would be responsible for the costs associated with implementing the quiet zones as well as the maintenance costs of each safety measure after it is installed.
City Manager Larry Stevens told the City Council at a recent budget workshop that city staff recently met with a representative from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to discuss the quiet zone program, which is only about three years old. “Based on the railroad's data concerning the costs of quiet zones in cities of similar size to Edmond, it appears that installing quiet zones in Edmond would cost over two million dollars,” Stevens said.
The annual maintenance for each of the zones could be about $5,000, or $55,000 annually for the 11 grade crossings in the city. “The installation and ongoing maintenance costs would be significant,” Stevens said.
He noted that the BNSF representative indicated that many cities have authorized an advance study as an initial step in determining costs.
The information from the study will be used to help evaluate the possibility of Edmond participating in this program.
Issued: March 28, 2008
