The following is a newspaper article from the Courier-News for Friday, 3/28/08.
Hillsboro slated for rail upgrades
By PAMELA SROKA·HOLZMANN
STAFF WRITER
HILLSBOROUGH - The Township committee has approved contracts to build safety medians at four rail crossings and install an electronic backup safety improvement at three of them.
The approved contracts will provide for the construction of 100-footmedians on either side of three of the rail crossings at Beekman Lane, Auten and Roycefield roads – including road stripping and warning signage - for $191,188. The railroad safety improvements will be installed at each of the crossings by Norfolk Southern, at a total of $141,000, said Township Clerk and Business Administrator Kevin Davis.
Davis said the majority of the funding for the quiet zone project comes from a $250,000 developer's contribution from Beazer Homes, the developer of the Pleasantview Estates project.
The township will use $250,000 from Beazer Homes and $100,000in budgeted funds for the project, which could take up to a year to complete. The plans recently were approved by the state Department of Transportation.
Mayor Anthony Ferrera told the public Tuesday thousands of township homeowners are affected by noise generated from the four horn blasts at each of the crossings – all within the nine-mile length of the Norfolk Southern line running through Hillsborough. The blasts often sound in the very early morning hours, the mayor said.
The township also intends to construct a wayside horn - where a horn is placed at the intersection of a crossing and would be directed at cars – at the Valley Road railroad crossing. Negotiations with Norfolk Southern on the wayside horn are ongoing, Ferrera said. Residents living near township railroad tracks had approached municipal officials with concerns last year, saying they couldn't sleep at night or talk on the telephone as a result of the noise. Others had said the sound disrupted their pets and infants.
However, Maurice Rached of Maser Consulting, the township's engineer on the project, said federal regulations require four horn blasts at each grade crossing.
"That is an unusually large number of horn blasts in a very small area," Rached said. "It does have an impact on homeowners."
During a test in September 2006 at the Valley Road crossing, the horn blasts were measured at about 92 decibels from a distance of 100 feet. When a train traveled through the Valley Road crossing, Robert Albritton, national sales manager of the company that makes the device, measured its horn blast at 106 decibels from the same distance – equal to a DC-8 aircraft at a little more than 6,000 feet before landing.
The solution is to install the added safety features at the rail crossings, so that trains traversing Hillsborough will not have to sound their horns at each crossing with the enhanced safety features.
"The construction of the medians and the safety improvements provided by the railroad will ultimately allow for the ending of the train horns at the three crossings, establishing quiet zones that will enhance the quality of life for these home owners," Ferrera said.
Pamela Sroka-Holzmann can be
reached at (908) 707-3155or
psroka@gannett.com