(The following story by Dianne E. Selden appeared on the Springfield News-Sun website on August 7.)
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Five railroad crossings soon will be closed permanently as part of a city-wide effort to improve railroad safety and to help quiet train noise near the crossings.
The railroad crossings at Zischler, Isabella, Race and Plum streets and Bell Avenue will be closed to traffic, said Leo Shanayda, Springfield city engineer.
The roads will be closed within the next few weeks, Shanayda said. Other that will receive improvements also will be temporarily closed.
The $5 million Norfolk Southern Rail Road Corridor Quiet Zone Design-Build Project includes closing the five roads, upgrading rail road crossing gates, installing vehicle detection technology and putting in a system of horns mounted on poles.
Those horns focus warning sounds to roadways – unlike train horns, he said.
The Springfield City Commission will consider at its Aug. 12 meeting a $1 million contract with Campbell Technology Corporation, based out of Fort Worth, Texas, to design and install 12 wayside horn systems and four vehicle-detection systems, he added.
Once wayside- or mounted- horns are installed and gates are improved, trains no longer will need to honk their horns within the city’s corridor, Shanayda said.
The money for the project will come from the Ohio Rail Development Commission, Norfolk Southern Corporation and the Clark County-Springfield Transportation Coordinating Committee, Shanayda said.