Federal Railroad Administration inspects quiet zone

Fairfield?s quiet zone, now 50 percent complete, received a nod of approval from Federal Railroad Administration regional manager Howard Gillespie during a tour of construction Tuesday, according to city councilman Michael Halley.

?He said everything was well within the standards,? said Halley. ?He gave us the thumbs up.?

Halley will submit a notice of establishment when construction is complete to administration headquarters in Washington, D.C., where the government agency will determine Fairfield?s compliance with its guidelines. He said gathering support from governing bodies such as regional FRA representatives, the Iowa Department of Transportation and the railroad company itself, Burlington Northern SantaFe, should help Fairfield?s application go through processing without any holdups.

Halley wished Gillespie could have visited when construction was complete and he could have signed off on the project, but beginning in October Gillespie was unavailable to travel from his office in Kansas City. Halley nevertheless plans to collect signatures of support for the FRA application during a post-construction review. A date has not been set for the meeting.

?I would have preferred if Gillespie had come when it was done, but now is better than not at all,? said Halley.

He said he would include a summary of the visit in his application to the FRA.

?He [Gillespie] assured me if he couldn?t make it to the meeting, he?d be available that day to answer questions from the railroad company or the D.O.T.,? he said.

Gillespie toured the 23rd Street crossing, where medians were just poured, and D and B street crossings where Halley and other city officials showed him the recently posted signage. They also brought him to the Court and Main street crossings, which are currently closed to through traffic.

Once construction is complete, all of the crossings? streets will be painted with a large white crossing symbol, and the medians? edges will be painted yellow.

Quiet zone construction began in late July with the 23rd street crossing. The city selected a design with a 2-foot wide median running 100 feet north and south of all of Fairfield?s crossings in order to create a barrier to traffic.

Halley said Gillespie, ?liked what he saw,? including medians which they built 10 inches tall, higher than the minimum of 6 inches.

Gillespie?s office oversees 41 quiet zones in ?Iowa, ? Colorado, Kansas, ?Missouri and ?Nebraska. If Fairfield is established as planned, the number will be brought to 42 later this year.

Halley said he hopes to receive FRA approval in time for Thanksgiving.

Once established, train operators may still blast the occasional horn, which will be welcomed by those who find the sound nostalgic, Halley said.

Trespassing on the tracks is a common reason engineers will sound horns within quiet zones, or when approaching a work crew performing maintenance on the tracks. Gillespie recommended local law enforcement education citizens to stay off the tracks.

Gillespie said it?s not unheard of for train engineers to sound their horns out of habit, and in such cases the city should first contact the railroad company with a friendly reminder before contacting his office.