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<br />Quiet Zone Evaluation 23 <br />New Brighton, Minnesota <br />Quiet Zone Area 3 <br />The rail crossing of Park Drive is the only one in Quiet Zone Area 3. There are two <br />possible improvement concepts for this area. The existing gates may be sufficient <br />to keep the risk below the thresholds. If the FRA determines that they are not, the <br />installation of a channelization device would be the appropriate SSM. Although the <br />roadway is narrow, there still appears to be room to install this type of device. Figure <br />8 shows the potential improvement concept for Quiet Zone Area 3. <br /> <br />Both concepts were input into the Quiet Zone calculator to determine the <br />effectiveness in reducing the risk at the crossing. The following table shows the <br />results and comparison to the RIWH and NSRT. <br /> <br />Table 3 – Quiet Zone Area 3 Potential Improvements Effectiveness <br />Quiet Zone Area 3 QZRI RIWH NSRT <br />Concept 1 <br />(Existing Gates Only) 3,328.76 <br />1,995.64 14,723.00 Improvement Concept 2 <br />(Added Channelization) 832.18 <br /> <br />As shown, both QZRIs are below the NSRT, and the improvement concept (with <br />channelization) is below the RIWH. In order to keep the existing gates only, this <br />Quiet Zone area would likely need to be combined with an adjacent area and a <br />diagnostic team review would need to accept the use of the existing gates only. To <br />improve safety for pedestrians, channelizing fencing should also be added to force <br />pedestrians to look both ways for trains. This is less expensive than automatic gates, <br />but still provides a measure of safety for pedestrians. The trail intersection may also <br />need to be redesigned to move the trail intersection further west, away from the <br />tracks. <br /> <br />The following may be necessary for the Park Drive crossing improvements: <br /> Channelization device to separate traffic on each approach. <br /> Potential trail channelization. <br /> Potential trail redesign. <br /> <br />Including contingency costs for additional signing, pavement markings, engineering, <br />and other miscellaneous items, the total concept cost ranges from $0 to $40,000 <br />depending on whether or not the existing conditions are acceptable. <br /> <br /> <br />