SRF was selected by the City of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, to conduct a quiet zone assessment study for two rail corridors through the city. The first corridor included eight public crossings along a 1.7-mile stretch of rail line owned and operated by CSX Transportation (CSX). The second corridor included 19 public crossings along a 4.4-mile stretch of rail line owned and operated by Carolina Coastal Railway (CLNA).
SRF worked in close coordination with staff from multiple stakeholders, including the City of Rocky Mount, Edgecombe and Nash Counties, the FRA, the North Carolina DOT, and CSX and CLNA railroads. SRF facilitated a field diagnostic review to evaluate the potential improvements available at each crossing. The improvements explored included non-traversable medians, four-quadrant gate systems, and gates on existing one-way streets. Additionally, the City had recently closed four of the crossings on the CLNA corridor. Working with FRA, SRF was able to negotiate the inclusion of these closures as part of the crossing improvement scenarios used in the quiet zone risk reduction calculations.
SRF developed a number of scenarios (including planning level layout and construction cost estimates) for improvements that would qualify the corridors for quiet zone implementation, including minimal cost scenarios and maximum safety benefit scenarios. SRF also developed various options for a phased implementation of the quiet zones to be implemented piece by piece as funding became available.
