North OC Rail Project Funded; Engineering Starts
A $328 million project to lower five miles of rail line through Placentia and portions of neighboring cities is gaining steam.
The Orange County Gateway Project, one of the county’s bigger public works in recent years, is attracting interest from engineering, environmental and construction companies.
“The phones are constantly going off on this project,” said Chris Becker, director of public works for Placentia and the point man for this project. “Everybody knows we have a few dollars now.”
The recently approved state budget includes $28 million for the project, and a team of six companies led by Railroad Lowering Facilitators out of Palm Desert is conducting the preliminary engineering. A request for proposals for an environmental impact report and statement is expected by the end of the year. Construction will begin in 2005 and be completed two years later, if all goes as planned.
The Gateway Project will lower about five miles of Northern Burlington Santa Fe rail line into a trench 30 feet to 40 feet below street level, and involve building 11 bridges to carry street traffic over the trains. It will face some key engineering and environmental problems since the water table is higher than that in two places along the route.
The project is expected to help accommodate the projected rail traffic overflow from the Alameda Corridor, a 20-mile rail project that’s eliminating all of the street crossings between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the transcontinental rail switching yard east of downtown Los Angeles. This is expected to generate a huge boost in rail traffic and many of those trains are expected to be diverted to the Northern Burlington Santa Fe line, which is the main route from Southern California to Chicago and the rest of the Midwest.
The volume along the present route is expected to increase from 50 daily trains to 135 by 2020,about one every 12 minutes. Some of the trains are 8,000 feet in length and can bring traffic to a standstill in Placentia.
“You’ve got 15 (streets) that cross the transcontinental railroad track. You have one giant traffic gridlock if you don’t separate the cars and the trains,” Becker said. The lowered train tracks could also reduce noise in adjacent areas by 75% to 90%, he said.
During construction, trains will be diverted to temporary bypass lines to be built along the right-of-way as part of the project.
Besides Placentia, the project authority includes Anaheim, Yorba Linda and the Orange County Transportation Authority. Fullerton is considering joining, as well.
Becker said the project also is receiving a lot of support from local businesses such as retailers Home Depot Inc. and Sam’s Club.
“The congestion hurts their business,” Becker said.
The project aims to get its funding from federal and state sources as well as the rail company. Becker said Burlington Northern Santa Fe officials originally didn’t like the idea, fearing it might have to pay most of the cost. But Becker said the rail company might pay about 5% to 10% of the expected cost, saying that is typical for most line-lowering projects.
One obstacle could be other entities arguing that the money should be used for other projects, such as widening freeways. Officials at the OCTA have tried to divert funds from the Gateway Project to other projects in Orange County. But many of the area’s politicians are supporting the project.
“It will eliminate much of the exhaust caused by cars waiting to pass the train tracks,” said Supervisor Cynthia Coad, who represents Placentia. “During my campaign, I said if I cannot figure a way to get recessed rails in Placentia, I’d tie myself to the railroad track.”
