Kathy,
Thank you for your e-mail. I am happy to share information with you about the Quiet Zone Pilot Project.
Since January of 2004 upon my arrival on City Council, the District G office has facilitated meetings with the City's Department of Public Works and Engineering (PWE), the Federal Railroad Administration, Union Pacific, representatives from the Cities of Bellaire and West University Place and very engaged community members to evaluate crossings along a particular stretch of Union Pacific tracks stretching from I-10 south through District G and into District C ending at the Willowbend crossing you mention. I have personally attended many and my staff has been present at all of these monthly diagnosticmeetings in which we have reviewed FRA criteria set forth in October 2003 for Quiet Zone designation, assessed the improvement needs of each of thirteen individual crossings and developed specific plans to modify each crossing to satisfy FRA certification standards.
Last summer, the City of Houston identified public funding totaling $118,000 for implementation of improvements to crossings at San Felipe, Westheimer, Richmond, Hwy 59 North frontage, Hwy 59 South frontage, Bissonnet, Bellaire, Beechnut, S. Braeswood, 610 East frontage, 610 West frontage, Bellfort and Willowbend.
The original date established by the FRA for the first review of submitted compliance materials was December 18, 2004.As the District Council Member for the West Houston community through which this Union Pacific track runs and also as Chair of the City Council Quality of Life Committee, my staff and I have taken the lead on this project in our Houston-area working group since last spring. Working closely with PWE and District C, we have been vigilant and successful in executing the steps necessary in order to file our materials with the FRA by the December 18, 2004 date, meaning the City of Houston would be one of the very first cities in the country to file for designation of a stretch of track within our boundaries as an official Quiet Zone.
However, the FRA has recently changed its own timeline and the Federal Government has delayed the process for Quiet Zone implementation. In October 2004, the FRA did not meet their deadline for the publishing of the program's Final Rules and the date for the publishing of the Final Rules is now January 2005, pushing the date for the submissions of compliance materials by cities from December 2004 to April 2005.
I appreciate the opportunity to answer your questions regarding the process and crossings included. For information on how the Quiet Zone will impact Willowbend in particular beyond the information I've shared, please consider the District C City Council office as a resource ready to assist you. I have copied Council Member Goldberg on this message.
Pam
Pam Holm
Council Member District G