(The following article by Jeff DeLong was posted on the Reno Gazette-Journal website on November 18.)
RENO, Nevada — It’s trench time.
Sometime today, and no one’s sure exactly when, the first train is expected to rumble through the 2.2-mile-long concrete canyon designed to separate downtown Reno’s train traffic from its busy surface streets.
“The trench will be activated,” said Mark Davis, spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad.
The last train expected to use the temporary “shoefly” rail line installed to divert train traffic during the trench’s construction will be a westbound Amtrak passenger train between 9:30 and 11 a.m., said Reno spokeswoman Terri Hardy.
Once that train is on its way, crews will dismantle the shoefly line and connect the main rail line running through the trench, Davis said. He was unable to say exactly how long that work will take, but said once it’s done the first train can travel the passage.
The trench’s opening culminates years of debate, pitched political battles and completion of construction that is Reno’s largest public works project in history.
The $282 million project consists of a U-shaped channel that will separate tracks from 11 street-level vehicle and pedestrian crossings.
The trench’s average depth is 33 feet. Fourteen trains a day have been using the trench but the project was sold on the expectation of at least 36 trains daily.
“It’s a very big day. It’s one we’ve long waited for,” said Reno City Manager Charles McNeely.
The trench opening represents an end to on-and-off efforts dating to World War II, McNeely said. The current effort began in 1996.
“This time around we were able to get through all the hurdles we were confronted with,” McNeely said. “There were a lot of monumental things that had to come together to make this happen.”
Opinions on the project still differ.
“I think it’s a waste of money,” said Mike Robinson, an insurance broker who ran for city offices twice on an anti-trench campaign. Robinson, who insisted a series of underpasses made more sense, lost to Mayor Bob Cashell in a 2002 campaign that focused largely on the trench.
“It’s a done deal. That’s the way it’s going to be,” Robinson said Thursday.
Davis said the railroad welcomes the project because it will reduce the danger of potentially deadly collisions between trains and cars in downtown Reno.
“If you don’t have the cars crossing in front of the trains anymore, you’ve enhanced safety,” Davis said.