After years of planning, persistence and collaboration, Encinitas has received the news we’ve all been waiting for: the Federal Railroad Administration has selected the city to receive a grant for up to $33.6 million to construct a series of railroad crossing safety improvements along the rail corridor through Encinitas.
Former Encinitas Mayor Tony Kranz has been a longtime advocate for the project, dating back to the 2000s, when he was a member of the Leucadia Town Council.
“This is an extraordinary milestone for projects that have been advanced over many years, through several City Councils, and with the sustained efforts of city staff, regional partners and members of our community,” Kranz said. “Ideas that began as lines on maps, community priorities and difficult funding challenges are now positioned to become built projects.”
Many residents engaged on this issue over the years, but some key groups were also instrumental in organizing advocacy to put these projects in a place where they are about to actually happen. The Leucadia Town Council, NOWLeucadia and the Encinitas Quiet Zone group deserve a lot of credit.
The grant will require a 20% non-federal match, most of which will come from the city over the course of several years, and will help construct three projects years in the making. Here is a brief description of the projects:
An undercrossing in Cardiff near Verdi Avenue. It will provide a safe and legal crossing to the ramp to the beach on the north end of the San Elijo Campgrounds, commonly referred to as Pipes. The estimated cost for construction is $18 million.
A Quiet Zone to mostly silence train horns at E Street, D Street and Leucadia Boulevard. Similar to the intersection with the railroad at Chesterfield Drive in Cardiff, new gates will be added to block both directions of pedestrian and auto traffic when trains are approaching. Concrete medians will be created to make it harder to drive around the gates. Once completed, train engineers will not be required by federal law to sound the train horn four times, 15 seconds before passing through the intersection. (The engineers will retain the right to sound the horn at their discretion if the feel safety requires it.) This project is estimated to cost $13.4 million.
Two at-grade crossings north of Leucadia Boulevard, one near Phoebe Street and one at Grandview Street. This project will create crossings at track level for pedestrians and bicyclists in the two locations, opening up safe and legal crossings for people to get to the businesses and the beach in this long stretch of Highway 101. The cost for construction of this project is estimated to be $6 million.
The railroad has always presented Encinitas with a basic contradiction – it’s a national transportation asset that physically divides our community. Over time, every attempt to bridge that division has raised questions about safety, access, noise, neighborhood impacts, cost, aesthetics, and what the corridor should ultimately become.
Encinitas spent years debating and researching what to do with our railroad corridor, and in the process ended up assembling a portfolio of construction-ready projects. Then the federal funding environment changed in a way that suddenly rewarded exactly that kind of preparation.
Former Mayor Kranz sums up our good financial fortune: “There’s a saying about government projects – ‘money tends to find projects that are ready.’”
Happy to bring you exciting Encinitas news,
–Encinitas Action
Artist renderings of the Phoebe at-grade crossing (top) and the Grandview at-grade crossing (bottom). East of the tracks, the closest streets to the crossings will be E. Jason and E. Glaucus Streets for the Phoebe Street crossing, and Hillcrest Drive for the Grandview Street crossing.