[Durham INC] Study about Rail Road Crossings in Durham

[Pat Carstensen]

Ed and I ran into Mark Ahrendsen today.  He said that the Broad/Swift grade separation was in the report to show that it could be done and would be terrible.  So we should be energetically saying just how terrible it is, but given the budget for making changes along the rail corridor, most likely other locations, such as Ellis Road, will be where the road will be raised over the railroad bed.

Regards, pat

Subject: Re: [Durham INC] Study about Rail Road Crossings in Durham
From: ninth.st at frontier.com
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:30:12 -0400
CC: pats1717 at hotmail.com; inc-list at durhaminc.org
To: TheOcean1 at aol.com

I'm very concerned about the walkability of our downtown streetscape. Ramping the roads over the tracks removes the blocks on both sides of the tracks from the human landscape and turns them into a vehicle-scale construction. If you've ever walked from 5 Points to the West End on Chapel Hill Street -- there are sidewalks, but the experience of crossing the freeway bridge area is bleak and industrial.
The conversation I've had about this with friends always ends with people saying that having the new commuter and light rail is so important we'll have to just put up with whatever it takes. I hope there are more options here and we can win/win instead of win/lose.
Jan Martell

On Apr 27, 2013, at 1:11 AM, TheOcean1 at aol.com wrote:




To reach 
as close to the perfect conclusion as possible, the city and its citizens 
will need to hit a balance between what the railroad wants, and what the people 
want.
 
I'm just 
guessing, but that will probably mean concessions that seem insane to us 
regarding certain intersections like Ellis Rd, in exchange for things far more 
important to the majority of us, such as creating trails downtown from 
unused tracks. 

Bill 
Anderson


 

In a message dated 4/26/2013 10:40:29 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, 
pats1717 at hotmail.com writes:

  There was a sequence of public forums this month about the study 
  to make the places where roads cross railroads in Durham safer.  I went 
  looking for more information on the web.  What I found: 
  

  Minutes from presentation to INC in February 2012:
  

  Kevin 
  Hall talked about the Traffic Separation Study, where the “traffic” to 
  be separated is what is on the railroad track through town, which could be 
  high-speed rail or more frequent commuter rail in the future.  The 
  options for the 18 crossing being studied are doing nothing, closing the 
  crossing, improving it with better marking or barriers, or actually separating 
  the grades of the street and the railroad.  The changes could be anywhere 
  from short-term (0-3 years) to long-term (7-10 years).  It is an 18-month 
  study, kicked off with visioning workshops in November.  Nothing is 
  decided yet as they are still collecting data.  The study will consider 
  safety (e.g., accident history), mobility and accessibility (how much traffic 
  there is there, for example), and social and economic resources (funding, 
  land-use and so on).  The one crossing people had major comments on was 
  the Broad Street / Swift Avenue one. John will send out the maps and comment 
  information to the list-serve so folks can ask their neighborhoods for their 
  ideas and input.
  

  

  There are similar studies going on in other NC cities, with more detail 
  on what is being proposed there.
  

  The best information I could find on the Durham study is at http://www.durhamnc.gov/agendas_new/2012/cws20121217/8915_PRESENTATION_DURHAM_TRAFFIC_SEPARATION_319363_483869.ppt.PDF
  

  It looks like they are looking at making BIG, BIG HILLS so the road can 
  go over the railroad at Neal, LaSalle, Anderson, Swift/Broad, Duke, and the 
  list goes on.  The report on the Swift/Broad crossing that we heard at 
  the recent INC meeting was pretty scary.
  

  Regards, pat
  

    =

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