COHASSET, Mass. — Is two better than four? The Town of Cohasset seems to think so, according to the Cohasset Mariner.
The Board of Selectmen have voted to join forces with the towns of Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham and Scituate to fight the MBTA’s plan to install two-gate grade crossings along the Greenbush Line.
Quad gates block all four lanes of traffic at a grade crossing as opposed to two-gate systems which are only installed on the righthand side of a roadway and can be combined with median barriers to prevent motorists from cutting around the gate.
“The MBTA has said they are not going to put in quad gates,” said Town Manager Mark Haddad. “Well, we are very upset about that.”
The board signed a letter circulated by Greenbush Coordinator Alexander Macmillan, which calls for the Army Corps of Engineers to hold a hearing regarding the issue.
The style and efficacy of the grade crossing warning systems are very important, especially since the Greenbush line will be a “quiet corridor,” meaning that there are no planned whistles that will be sounded. The whistles will only be blown in the case of an emergency or if there are workers on the tracks.
“Instead of putting a berm (curbing) down the middle of the road and having to expand the roadway with the two-gate system, you can put in quad gates and avoid those problems,” said Haddad. “With quad gates, two gates come down on either side, getting rid of the need for the berm.”
While the design creates aesthetic concerns, it is also a safety issue.
“What the berm does is go right up to the railroad tracks, which prevents people from trying to go around the gates,” said Haddad. “But the quad gates accomplish the same thing more effectively.”
A number of outstanding design issues remain, including the location of the Scituate layover station and the Commercial Street grade crossing in Weymouth.
Macmillan said that it is essential that communities involved in the project, “assert themselves into the process. It’s helpful and comforting to know our concerns are shared by other towns, who also agree that four-quadrant gates are preferable to median barriers.”