This week, Oak Lawn’s quest to have the federal government designate a railroad quiet zone in the village was supposed to finally come to an end.
Actually establishing a quiet zone doesn’t take much work – if you’re talking about manual labor. The plans called for building a median on Cicero Avenue, installing a few lights and signs and creating a pedestrian crosswalk over some railroad tracks at Cook Avenue.
In fact, that work already is done. Except posting the “Quiet Zone” signs.
That’s because two years in the making, there is no quiet zone yet.
Let there be quiet
In 1994, Congress created a law that required train engineers to blast their locomotive horns at virtually all crossings where train tracks intersect roadways, ostensibly for safety reasons.
Federal lawmakers provided for an exception in “quiet zones,” residential areas where train horns are silenced as the locomotives plow through the communities.
Exceptions for quiet zones are made for emergency situations and are spelled out in a 55-page Federal Railroad Administration document.
Across the county, 375 quiet zones exist in one form or another. Illinois has 20.
Oak Lawn, whose residents and village officials had pressed to create a quiet zone along portions of Metra’s popular SouthWest Service Line, had positioned itself to be among the next in line.
“For the people residing along the SouthWest line, this quiet zone will bring the most welcome sound of all – the sound of silence,” U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-3rd) said in a news release.
To make it happen, Oak Lawn had to get the Illinois Department of Transportation to construct a new median along Cicero Avenue and convert a railroad crossing at Cook Avenue into a pedestrian-friendly walkway, complete with new lights and crossing arms.
Those plans were hatched two years ago, and work recently was completed on both.
But there’s still no quiet zone.
Not out of the woods yet
Just this month, while officials in Oak Lawn were finishing the paperwork that would pave the way for the Feb. 17 quiet zone debut, the Railroad Administration found a problem with the median.
It wasn’t a problem with the height, width or integrity of the new median.
Instead, federal officials took issue with the complex safety formula used to see if Oak Lawn was eligible for a quiet zone in the first place.
Oak Lawn received fewer points in the eligibility formula because of the way the median was constructed in 1960.
A Railroad Administration spokesman said Oak Lawn might not qualify for a quiet zone because the median, which would prevent cars from crossing the center of the road to beat trains, was too short and therefore too risky.
Oak Lawn officials contend that the old median always has been the same height, but road construction projects have changed the makeup of the road, not the median.
Plus, they say they weren’t told of the discrepancy until after the quiet zone plans went forward.
Oak Lawn officials wanted to plead their case with the Railroad Administration earlier, but a massive blizzard struck the East Coast, halting communication between Oak Lawn and legislators in Washington, D.C.
Both sides finally were able to meet last week to argue their viewpoints, and a federal ruling is expected within weeks.
It’s unclear how the new median will factor into the conversation between the government entities, but there is a chance Oak Lawn may have to start the application process all over again.
All of which amounts to a delay in silencing the horns of passenger trains that rumble through the village.
And still no quiet zone.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services