Five years ago, a group of residents in the Old Orange Historic District petitioned the City of Orange to implement a railroad quiet zone. A quiet zone would prohibit passing trains from blowing horns at every crossing.
City of Orange officials and the city council agreed with the request. The city received a grant from the Texas Department of Transportation to help pay to close and barricade some of the street crossings. Five streets have been barricaded at the railroad tracks to eliminate vehicular crossings.
The estimated time in January 2011 was that the project would take 18 months. City Public Works Director Jim Wolf said the quiet zone should be implemented by “early, early, early spring.”
Wolf said Union Pacific Railroad has delayed and added costs throughout the five years. The railroad company must approve any of the changes at crossings.
Wolf said the city has bought the required wayside horn for Green Avenue and has been waiting for Union Pacific to install it.
The wayside horn is a system of an electronic speaker attached to a tall metal pole. When a train nears, the speaker sounds a recorded train horn outward to the lanes of vehicle traffic. Wolf said Union Pacific is charging the city more than the usual price for the installation and the city tried to negotiate the price down.
The quiet zone is to run from Main Avenue north to Allie Payne Road.
Social Media