In fact, that work already is done. Except posting the “Quiet Zone” signs. <\/p>\n
That’s because two years in the making, there is no quiet zone yet. <\/p>\n
Let there be quiet <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Federal lawmakers provided for an exception in “quiet zones,” residential areas where train horns are silenced as the locomotives plow through the communities. <\/p>\n
Exceptions for quiet zones are made for emergency situations and are spelled out in a 55-page Federal Railroad Administration document. <\/p>\n
Across the county, 375 quiet zones exist in one form or another. Illinois has 20. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
“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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Those plans were hatched two years ago, and work recently was completed on both. <\/p>\n
But there’s still no quiet zone. <\/p>\n
Not out of the woods yet <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
It wasn’t a problem with the height, width or integrity of the new median. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Oak Lawn received fewer points in the eligibility formula because of the way the median was constructed in 1960. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Plus, they say they weren’t told of the discrepancy until after the quiet zone plans went forward. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Both sides finally were able to meet last week to argue their viewpoints, and a federal ruling is expected within weeks. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
All of which amounts to a delay in silencing the horns of passenger trains that rumble through the village. <\/p>\n
And still no quiet zone. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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