The sound of trains keeping you up at night? Well, you're not alone, and you may just be one of the St. Lucie County residents benefiting from the implementation of quiet zones at railroad crossings. County Communications Director Eric Gill has more.
"So what that means is now trains that go through those aren't required to blow their horns. That doesn't mean that they still can't blow their horn if, say, there is an animal on the track. They can still pull their horns, but they're not required to now that they are quiet zones," he said.
The quiet zones, which were implemented at Midway Road, Walton Road, and Riverview Drive, were carefully selected based on different criteria.
"In order to put in quiet zones, we wanted to look at crossings that had several factors. One, not a lot of pedestrian traffic. Also that had additional safety upgrades to the quad gates. The other criteria was that they were county-maintained roads and crossings. All three of these fit that criteria. So as a pilot program, we decided to move forward at the request of residents in the south end of the county with making those crossings quiet zones," he said.
Eric says that depending on the success of these zones, more residents might be able to get some reprieve from the noise of trains.
"We're going to monitor it. It could mean there are more or it could mean less. If we feel that it's not safe, then we're going to work around with the residents and let them know that due to safety reasons, we withdraw those quiet zones," he said.
As of right now, the south part of the county is the only part that received the quiet zones. However, the demand for less noise is everywhere.
"There is a request from residents in other parts of the county in the northern area about getting quiet zones, particularly up in the St. Lucie Village area. However, there are a little more concerns there regarding with the road, and we want to see how the quiet zones work out in the southern end of the county where we feel like there's less of a risk there as far as traffic and pedestrian crossings," he said.
Above all, Eric said that the county hears people's complaints and wants to help, but they have some hoops to jump through.
"If we get a lot of noise complaints from residents that it's not helping, then we will work with the Federal Railroad, the FCC, and the other parties involved. Railroads are a little different. They're managed at a federal level. Local governments don't have a lot of authority when it comes to railroads," he said.