Call for sound wall grows louder
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Tuesday, June 5, 2007
By Bryon Saxton
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
bsaxton@standard.net
Layton woman voices concerns
LAYTON -- Too many fast-moving trains, and no sound wall.
Not the lament in an old country song, but the concern of a Layton woman whose backyard on Celia Way will be adjacent to the new FrontRunner commuter rail line.
The 38-mile section of the FrontRunner line to run from Ogden to Salt Lake City is set to become operational in July 2008.
"I have a big backyard and that is where I like my kids to play," said Cecilia Delgado. She was hoping with the FrontRunner coming online, a sound wall would be built between her yard and the tracks.
Delgado said she recently discovered through her fiancé that no sound wall is in the works for Celia Way at about 1950 N. 2125 West. She said he talked to a Utah Transit Authority construction team building a wall on a street near the one she lives on.
"We thought we were going to get a wall, too," she said. "I didn't have a problem with (the rail line) when I thought they were putting a wall up."
Delgado said she's concerned because her backyard is so close to the commuter rail line. Having only a wire fence, her children could be hit by any type of flying debris coming off the track.
"We are pretty concerned with it," she said.
The 70-foot-long locomotives are capable of traveling up to 91 mph, but operators will use only a maximum speed of 79 mph, said Steve Meyer, UTA manager for commuter rail engineering and construction.
According to UTA officials overseeing the FrontRunner commuter rail route, no homeowners living along the route will receive sound walls.
"We're actually not building any sound walls on the FrontRunner north project," said Chad Saley, UTA spokesman.
"There is a retaining wall being built (in the area)," Saley said of the wall Delgado made reference to. That particular wall, Saley said, is being built to hold some earth in place. "It is not a noise wall."
Adding a sound wall to her street, Delgado said, shouldn't be costly where it isn't a long stretch of road.
Sound walls or noise walls are paid for by UTA as part of mitigation efforts to landowners, Saley said.
For properties to receive a sound wall, they must meet a certain criteria regarding an increased noise decibel level above what the area was experiencing, he said.
FrontRunner will raise noise levels "slightly" above the level already raised by Union Pacific trains passing by that neighborhood, Saley said. But the commuter trains will not increase noise levels to the point of UTA having to install noise walls, he said.
"It shouldn't be too much noisier than when the trains run," he said.
Having "quiet zones" designated by the Federal Railroad Administration along the rail line route from Salt Lake City to Ogden, Saley said, will also eliminate train conductors sounding their horn when traveling through railroad crossings.
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