Western Railroad Discussion > Underpass overwhelms Placentia

http://www.ocregister.com/local/train00703cci.shtml
Underpass overwhelms Placentia

Officials happily break ground on first of 11 spans that will separate trains from traffic.

July 3, 2002

By PATRICK VUONG
The Orange County Register

Placentia -- In a ceremony punctuated by whistle-blasting trains, city leaders broke ground Tuesday for a two-year, $16.4 million road underpass at Melrose Street.

The construction, which will route street traffic beneath the train tracks, launches a $440 million plan to eliminate 11 intersections along five miles of north county railway.

City officials, who ceremoniously shoveled sand in an empty lot north of Crowther Avenue, were ecstatic that the effort to ease traffic and improve safety along the tracks is under way.

"It's the first step in what is probably the largest infrastructure project in our city's history," Mayor Chris Lowe said. "This is a day to celebrate a lot of hard work."

Construction is expected to begin on the underpass in September. The city must first purchase the last of five private properties.

The rest of the $440 million project will lower tracks 35 feet below street level starting east of Melrose, rising again after Lakeview Avenue.

About 150 people attended Tuesday's ceremony, including federal politicians, state representatives and county officials.

"There's still much work to be done to complete the entire rail-lowering project," said U.S. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, who is on the railroad-lowering project's advisory committee.

The state provided $28 million for the lowering project, including the funds used for Melrose.

Royce said he and U.S. Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar, will promote legislation next spring to raise $200 million for the rail lowering.

Councilwoman Constance Underhill said about 60 to 70 freight trains roll through the city daily along the rail corridor, which carries 40 percent of the container traffic from the Port of Long Beach.

Placentia is also planning $5 million in temporary safety measures at its railroad intersections as a way of helping quiet train whistles until the lowering project is completed.

Those whistles began blasting in the city in April 2001 after Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. ended a decades-old voluntary silence policy.

The city estimates it will complete the track lowering in 2007.

Excuse me, but which is it? A project to put the trains below ground level? Or a project to put the auto traffic below the RR? It seems that the typical politican and news reporters can't get their act straight.

At least they are doing the right thing by building grade separations for auto vs train. To bad it took an accident of major proportions to get the projects started.

As for whistle blowing: let them use ear-plugs. How come politicians/residents never seem to be aware that the whistle "noise" is there to save lives?

Gabbyh1 wrote:

> Excuse me, but which is it? A project to put the trains below
> ground level? Or a project to put the auto traffic below the
> RR? It seems that the typical politican and news reporters
> can't get their act straight.

Well in this case it is BOTH! Some streets will be an underpass but the majority of the project will put the tracks in a trench.

See: http://www.ontrac-jpa.org/pb2.html

Placentia Avenue will be an underpass.
Melrose Street will be an underpass.
Bradford Avenue will be closed.

Kraemer Boulevard, Orangethorpe Avenue, Tustin/Rose Drive, Jefferson Street, Van Buren Street, Richfield Road, Fee Ana Street, Lakeview Avenue, and Kellogg Drive will be constructed as new bridge crossings over the trench.

Thanks for the info..

One thing that I am concerned about with the railroad being in a trench (including the Alameda Corridor), and that is where do the crews go to escape the trench in a derailment, hazmat spill, etc.? Or do any of the government agencies, railroads, take that into consideration? Or are we just "cannon fodder"?

Gabbyh1

Gabbyh1 wrote:

To bad it took an accident of
> major proportions to get the projects started.

Too bad nothing, this project started three years ago.
And just like the Alameda Corridor there will be access ladders and stairways for crew emergency access. Ventilation will be better than the AC as the Placentia ditch is in line with the prevailing winds. Three tracks plus the Atwood junction switch and the crews will not be able to use the "sun got in my eyes/lame-a**excuse" for running red signals.


TCSmith

<Three tracks plus the Atwood junction switch and the crews will not be able to use the "sun got in my eyes/lame-a**excuse" for running red signals.>

Not sure about that - there will be a few days out of the year when the setting/rising sun will be beaming right along the axis of the trench. Kinda like the stretch of the 405 Freeway through Long Beach that catches the setting sun right into the eyes of the westbound traffic in late October. Last fall, traffic there slowed to about 10 mph in a dam hurry when you came around the bend around Cherry Ave, since you were just about completely blinded by the setting sun reflecting off the pavement and retaining walls at a glare angle. Were that to happen in a narrow trench on the RR, it could get pretty bad.

Kit

Kit;
Ask JB how much light gets into the Alameda Corridor with the "storm drain grating"/bars across the top. Same thing here.


TCSmith