‘Quiet zone’ is on track to cut down train noise

EMERYVILLE

Construction begins on gates and signals so conductors don’t have to blare engine horns

Pedestrians wait at a train crossing along 65th Street on Tuesday in Emeryville. The city is installing pedestrian gates and traffic signals along three intersections of track in an effort to reduce train-horn noise in the area. The work is expected to be done by next summer. ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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By Katie Lauer

klauer@bayareanewsgroup.com

Dozens of piercing train horns reverberate through Emeryville daily, but respite is coming around the bend.

The city is on track to unveil a new “quiet zone” by next summer, where newly installed pedestrian gates and traffic signals mean conductors won’t be required by the state and federal government to blare their horns for 15 seconds before each public-grade crossing anymore.

Local government and transportation officials broke ground Tuesday at the intersections of 65th, 66th and 67th streets along Shellmound Street, which runs parallel to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks that cut through the city’s industrial areas near the San Francisco Bay shoreline.

In addition to freight coming in and out of the Port of Oakland by rail, the California Zephyr, Capitol Corridor, Coast Starlight and San Joaquins locomotives carry passengers through Emeryville. And according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, train horns reach volumes between 96 and 110 decibels — around the same loudness as a live rock concert, power lawn mower or jet take-off.

Mayor John Bauters said he hopes that by reducing the racket along the railroad, more residential and commercial developments along the city’s transit corridor will thrive, including the 186-unit Bayview Emeryville Apartments project under construction a block away, bounded by Shellmound and Interstate 80.

“If you were to go stand at the Public Market when a train is coming through, and then imagine that at 11:30 at night in your bedroom, it’s way different,” Bauters said in an interview, adding that around 65 trains pass through Emeryville each day. “I get two emails a week from people who are like, ‘Do something about this train.’”

While conductors will maintain discretion to pull their horns if they encounter potential safety risks — such as a person near the tracks — within the “quiet zone,” Bauters said, removing mandatory Federal Railroad Administration horn requirements should decrease noise complaints.

Bauters added that the only pushback he’s heard against the project has come from a small handful of residents in neighboring cities who said they enjoy hearing the ambient train noise. Earlier concerns about sidewalks and bike lanes disappearing were alleviated when residents learned they would be replaced.

Getting rid of train warning signals also doesn’t automatically increase the danger of railroad collisions, which can lead to injuries and even death.

Infrastructure improvements at 65th and 67th streets will include quad “double arm” safety gates that come down on both sides of each crossing, medians to stop cars from going around the gates, fences along the tracks to prevent trespassing and new pedestrian crossing signals and sidewalks.

Additionally, 66th Street will be closed and turned into a cul-de-sac where the road meets the track, at the request of Union Pacific during project negotiations.

First studied in 2008, this “quiet zone project” is slated to cost $8.87 million by the time construction is completed by the start of 2024, pulling in funding from California’s gas tax-funded Trade Corridor Enhancement Program, the Alameda County Transportation Commission’s Measure BB and the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency Transportation Improvement Program.

City funding will also help cover costs, including $2.26 million the Emeryville City Council approved in February for a contract with Bay Cities Paving and Grading, and an additional $454,000 set aside for contingency expenditures.

“We’re going to be one of the first communities in Alameda County to do this new type of infrastructure safety improvement,” Bauters said. “We want to build densely and create urban living that’s livable. Quiet zones add an additional bonus to the community so they get safety and livability.”

Roughly an hour south of Emeryville, San Jose recently established its own “quiet zone” along the Union Pacific tracks that wind through the city. However, San Jose’s 1.8-mile stretch — which starts at Diridon Station, passes through Japantown and ends just south of U.S. Highway 101 — only installed infrastructure to create a “partial” quiet zone, so train horns are only restricted from sounding between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., except in emergencies.

In Contra Costa County, Richmond boasts eight different quiet zones — the most of any California city — along its BNSF Railways tracks, installed after then-Councilmember Tom Butt decided to push back against the noise he deemed a “modern public health plague.”