The City of Hamilton, Ohio sits at the confluence of multiple railroad lines operated by both the Norfolk Southern and CSX railroads. In order to better understand the potential costs and benefits of implementing quiet zones at crossings throughout the City, Hamilton hired SRF to conduct a Quiet Zone Assessment for 30 public highway-rail grade crossings.
SRF coordinated with representatives from both railroads and the FRA and evaluated the crossings during a two-day diagnostic meeting. The 30 crossings were distributed among four separate quiet zones consisting of two to 11 crossings in each. For each quiet zone, SRF developed multiple crossing improvement scenarios that would allow for quiet zone implementation at some or all crossings. The City was particularly interested in the potential for phased implementation of the quiet zone. For each quiet zone, scenarios were developed that would allow for the City to implement a quiet zone in a portion of the corridor with the option of implementing quiet zones at the adjacent crossings at some point in the future.