Cutting the Noise: How to Successfully Implement a Railroad Quiet Zone

Episode Transcript

Mollie (Host)
Welcome to {Brief}ly Speaking, the SEH podcast that cuts straight to the chase. We tackle big topics in architecture, engineering, and construction with quick expert insights. No fluff, just the essentials, all in a few minutes. Let's dive in. Today, we're zooming in on railroad quiet zones, a critical yet often overlooked factor when developing near active rail lines. While they can significantly improve community livability and boost property values, quiet zones also come with safety requirements and regulatory hurdles that demand early, proactive planning. Joining us to break down these essentials is Collin Mackey, a civil engineer with extensive experience working directly within railroad environments. Collin has led projects involving track design, drainage, grading, at-grade crossings, and signal systems, often within active rail corridors. His hands-on experience navigating railroad regulations and crossing improvements gives him a deep understanding of what it takes to successfully plan and implement quiet zones. Collin Mackey, welcome to {Brief}ly Speaking.

Collin (Guest)
Hey, thanks Mollie.

Mollie (Host)
Quiet zones sound like a great benefit to communities, but they kind of sound complex to establish. Can you run through what a quiet zone is and why they're becoming more important for both developers and municipalities?

Collin (Guest)
Yeah, absolutely. So really when it comes down to it, quiet zones aren't that complex as they seem. They really do get that reputation since there's multiple steps to get through them. A quiet zone is when the trains cease to sound their horn at a road crossing. As it is today, the trains need to sound their horn at each crossing multiple times. So a quiet zone ceases that sounding unless there's a major safety concern. Residents are just getting sick of the noise. They don't like hearing the train horn multiple times outside of their homes. So they're pushing their local communities to try to establish these quiet zones. So that's why it's becoming more popular.

Mollie (Host)
That makes sense. If you're sleeping and a train is coming through in the middle of the night, I'm sure that can get a little frustrating having a horn going on the hours of the night. So from your experience, what are the most common challenges that clients face when trying to develop a quiet zone or get one put in place?

Collin (Guest)
I think it starts by understanding the time frame. Quiet zones don't get established overnight. This is going to likely take months to possibly multiple years to complete.

Mollie (Host)
So typically for a developer, this would be something if they were going to be developing a housing area near a railroad crossing. This is something that they're thinking of trying to be proactive on. It would be one of the early steps that we would get rolling.

Collin (Guest)
Yep. That's what we always say. If you think you're going to do a quiet zone, let's get in contact with the railroad and let's start early.

Mollie (Host)
You said it's multiple steps. Can you walk me through what those are?

Collin (Guest)
Once you think you want a quiet zone, that's where we start the whole coordination item. We reach out to any parties that might be involved. We schedule an on-site field diagnostic meeting to just review, hey, here's what we want to do. And then the railroad, the FRA, anyone who's involved is going to provide their opinions and what they think we should do to make this a safe quiet zone. Once that's done, we draft a report that we intend to make this a quiet zone. We go through our design and our safety implementations that are needed. That gets submitted to the railroads, the FRA. Then we actually go and we construct all these safety improvements that are needed for the quiet zone. So once that construction is done, we go back and we submit another report to the FRA and the railroad saying, hey, all this construction is done. We meet the requirements of the quiet zone. It's now going to go into effect. So those are the basic outlines of the steps that are needed.

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Mollie (Host)
Is there any public involvement? Do you have to let the community know that this is not going to be a quiet zone? There's not going to be any horns happening to warn you that a train's coming? How does that look?

Collin (Guest)
It's really up to the municipality or whoever's establishing the quiet zone. There really isn't any requirement to inform them. The requirement is to let the railroad know that it's coming. But once it is established, there are requirements that have signage up at each crossing that states, hey, there's no train horn here. That goes for both vehicular crossings and pedestrian crossings. They both need that signage that let the residents know, hey, there's no train horn at this crossing that's coming up.

Mollie (Host)
That leads into my next question because it's nice not having loud train horns, you know, right outside your backyard. But safety is obviously a huge concern here. We want to make sure that people are safe. You said there's signs that say that there's no horns. What were some other safety measures that are put in place when these quiet zones are created?

Collin (Guest)
You've heard me mention the FRA a couple times. So that's the Federal Railroad Administration. They oversee all quiet zones in the United States. So they pretty much give us the thumbs up that we're good for a quiet zone or not. They have a strict set of guidelines that we need to meet to be able to establish a quiet zone. and safety is the top priority that they have. They're not going to let you just create a quiet zone at any old crossing without doing safety improvements. There's a handful of them that we can choose from. They kind of range from four-quadrant gates, so doing four different gates across the road. We can put curb medians or delineators on the center of the road that would deter vehicles from trying to go around the gates when a train's coming. There's lots of signage that goes into it. Same on the pedestrian side. We can do Z gates, signage, detectable warning devices. There's a lot of stuff that can go into the safety improvements for these quiet zones because like I mentioned, that's everyone's top priority when we establish these is safety.

Mollie (Host)
It's great that we have options for the different safety measures that then can be established in place of the horn. What does it look like for funding those? I'm assuming that would be on the developer, the municipality to make those changes. Are there funding options that we help the client get or is that just on them for planning purposes?

Collin (Guest)
Funding for the quiet zone is always going to be on the municipality or whoever is trying to create the quiet zone. The railroad will help out very rarely on that. In almost all instances that I've seen, it's been on the community. There are options for funding that we have explored in the past. There's actually a project down in Indiana right now where we're exploring some funding options. So there are CRISI grants through the FRA. We call them safety improvements. That's the way we kind of help secure that funding. That's the main one, but there are others that we're currently exploring to help municipalities pay for these quiet zones.

Mollie (Host)
Let's talk about new crossings or adding crossings in. If a development is being built next to a railroad, but there's no existing crossings in the area, what's the process of getting one added in? And then can you just make it a quiet zone from the beginning?

Collin (Guest)
Again, with the plan ahead, if you think you're going to be possibly wanting a quiet zone in this area in the future, it's great to implement those safety measures when you're putting in the new crossing. That way, you don't have to come back at a later date, rip out part of your new crossing, add stuff. It saves the client time and money down the road to do the plan for that quiet zone up front when you're putting in a new crossing.

Mollie (Host)
To me, it sounds like everything we're talking about is be proactive.

Collin (Guest)
Exactly. Be proactive and really plan ahead. Reach out to us, reach out to the railroad. It helps get a head start.

Mollie (Host)
Well, for listeners who want to dive deeper or have a specific question about a crossing and navigating quiet zones on their projects, what is the best way to connect with you?

Collin (Guest)
It is cmaki, spelled cmaki@sehinc.com. reach out and give me a call or shoot me an e-mail anytime and I'd be happy to chat about your quiet zone needs.

Mollie (Host)
That brings us to the end of today's episode on railroad quiet zones. It's a topic where community livability, safety, and development strategy all intersect. A big thanks to Collin for breaking down the complexities or not so complexities of it and offering insights for both developers and municipalities navigating these projects. If you're planning a development near rail lines or considering a quiet zone in your community, we hope that this conversation gave you a starting point and maybe a few things to watch out for. more AEC insights like this, be sure to follow our podcast. And if you have any questions or need help working through the quiet zone process, Collin is always just a message away. Thanks for tuning in and we will see you next time on {Brief}ly Speaking.