Trains, planes and automobiles.

[StL_Dan]

Well....skip the part about airplanes, and take a look at this (it's about friggin' time):

Olathe Gets Green Light on Major Railroad Project

Olathe, Kan. — At today’s State of the City speech, Mayor Michael Copeland announced Olathe has been approved for $16,870,000 in state funding for a major railroad grade separation project. The total cost of the project is estimated at $21 million.

Construction is planned to begin early next year and be completed in 2005. The project lifts the eastern tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad over four Olathe intersections on Park, Loula, Santa Fe and Ridgeview. It will eliminate an estimated 2,220 hours of motorist delays each day when completed.

The City of Olathe has been wrestling with the traffic and safety problems from trains for decades, and this project will make a major difference. Olathe, the fastest-growing city in Kansas, currently is bisected by 23 at-grade railroad crossings (intersections where roads directly cross train tracks). According to a professional survey conducted in the fall of 2001, 90 percent of the City’s residents identify railroad crossings as a major cause of traffic congestion in the city. In addition, the state of Kansas and the Federal Railroad Administration have made elimination of at-grade railroad crossings a top priority.

According to the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) Company, which owns and operates the tracks, 32 trains averaging a mile-and-a-half in length currently travel that stretch of rail line (called the Fort Scott subdivision) every day. Those trains block each of the four crossings for almost an hour-and-a-half on an average day, delaying 3,200 vehicles. The number of trains traveling on that section of the line is expected to increase even as automobile traffic also is increasing.

The BNSF is a major carrier of commodities in Kansas, and the volume of goods it carries has been increasing. According to KDOT, in 1996, the BNSF transported 52,995,037 tons of commodities in Kansas. By 1998, volume had increased to 86,105,747 tons.

City officials indicated they are interested in designs and materials that could minimize the aesthetic impact the elevated tracks could present.

The city initially issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) that considered design work on a tunnel that would have channeled Santa Fe traffic under the railroad tracks east of I-35. The estimated cost of that project was $18.8 million.

Upon reviewing options, TranSystems, the company selected to design the project, concluded it would be more cost-effective and less disruptive to elevate the railroad tracks over Santa Fe and the additional three crossings, at an approximate cost of $21 million.

Construction of an automobile tunnel for Santa Fe traffic would have required the temporary shifting of roads and railroad tracks, the relocation of businesses, and an estimated $6 to $8 million in right-of-way acquisition.

Elevating the railroad tracks over Santa Fe, Ridgeview, Loula and Park will require little or no right-of-way acquisition. The project would not require the rerouting of automobile and train traffic.

[phxcat]

That will be nice. I can live with the crossing over Santa Fe, I've always had to cross on Johnsons Drive, and that is more of a nuisance. BUt the other ones, Olather has some railroad crossings over little roads where you should expect a crossing, and I would think that that would just be dangerous. As I remember from last time I was on the west side, I'm not sure all of them have cross arms.

[StL_Dan]

That will be nice. I can live with the crossing over Santa Fe, I've always had to cross on Johnsons Drive, and that is more of a nuisance. BUt the other ones, Olather has some railroad crossings over little roads where you should expect a crossing, and I would think that that would just be dangerous. As I remember from last time I was on the west side, I'm not sure all of them have cross arms.

All intersections, including minor arteries (neighborhood streets in reality) have crossing arms - Park and Loula. K150 (Santa Fe) and Dennis also have crossing arms. I don't know how much time I've spent waiting to get across town because of trains in the past 15 years. Too much time, I'll tell you that. It gets really bad when you start thinking about emergency vehicles getting held up because there is absolutely no way to cross to the east or west unless you drive a mile or two north or south to 119th or Old 56 Hwy respectively.

This is a giant step of progression.

[KCN]

Good news for Olathe.

I wish they'd do that here in College Station. I sat for at LEAST 30 minutes (8 songs on a CD) waiting for a train to go by at like 1-2 mph the other day. Traffic backs up enormously and you raise a good point about the emergency vehicles.

[StL_Dan]

Elevating the BNSF, Fort Scott Subdivision
City of Olathe, Kansas
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Elevating the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), Fort Scott Subdivision, through the City of Olathe will be accomplished with the construction of an elevated railroad section on structured embankment and grade separation structures at Ridgeview Road, Santa Fe, Park and Loula Streets. The Santa Fe and Ridgeview crossings have “exposureâ€