The Jefferson city council will hold a public hearing at its regular meeting next Tuesday, March 25, to receive comments about closing the Union Pacific railroad crossing at N. Pinet St.
The crossing is the least used of the six Jefferson crossings, according to traffic counts done by Snyder and Associates last April.
The daily average count for weekdays is 286 at that crossing; with Saturdays and Sundays added in, the average is 258.
Closing railroad crossings is part of establishing a “quiet zone,” a topic the city council discussed in 2007 but still hasn’t implemented. In a quiet zone, trains do not signal at crossings as they do now. The number of crossings is kept to a minimum, with the crossings redesigned for increased safety. City administrator Mike Palmer explained that the street is widened with a concrete structure, rather like a boulevard, between the two traffic lanes on either side of the crossing. The concrete boulevards make it nearly impossible to drive around railroad crossing arms.
Reducing the number of crossings and establishing the quiet zone has advantages for Union Pacific and for city residents.
For Union Pacific, fewer crossings means less liability in regards to accidents, and less expense. “Liability is the biggest thing,” Palmer said. “Crossing arms are expensive, and there’s always ongoing maintenance of the crossings. And, no matter how safe the railroad makes them, people still go around the gates.”
For the city, a quiet zone would make neighborhoods more pleasant. An estimated 70 trains per day go through Jefferson, with the engineers blowing the train horn several times. Palmer said some residents claim they barely notice the trains, while others complain about train horns loud enough to drown out conversation.
Union Pacific has offered the city a one-time payment of $16,500 for closing the Pinet St crossing. City attorney Bob Schwarzkopf is working on a written agreement between UP and the city.
The goal is eventually to have only three railroad crossings in Jefferson – Cedar St, Grimmell Road, and the Elm St overpass.
The overpass is the most used crossing, with the average number of crossings at 6,256 per day, including Saturday and Sunday. The Cedar and Grimmell crossings follow, with averages of 910 and 826 vehicles per day, respectively.
The Wilson crossing ranks fourth with an average of 363 vehicles, and Maple follows at 407.
