Railroad Underpass

[soonermike]

The city of Moore is looking at a plan to put a train underpass on 4th street or 12th street.

http://www.mooremonthly.com/index.ph...s&news_id=1392

While I know that waiting a few minutes for a train to pass by is inconvenient, I can't believe that this project is worth $10 million when $20 million is needed to build an overpass at SW 34th to relieve some of the traffic problems on 19th. The train crossing is an issue for a five minutes a few times each day, but 19th is a constant problem that continues to grow worse. I think that once the new Dick's is built, we need to stop pursuing any new large retailers until city leaders come up with a real plan to deal with the traffic problems at 19th from Santa Fe to Broadway, particularly at the intersections where 19th crosses Telephone Rd and the two I-35 service roads. Putting up signs telling people not to block intersections does no good without any kind of enforcement.

[kevinpate]

your estimate of a few times daily is low. It may actually be closer to a 2-3 trains hourly. Not discounting the real congestion on 19th, I won't drive it generally if I can avoid it, but Moore has a lot of train traffic.

[OKCisOK4me]

I think the reason for the underpass would be like Edmond's, for emergency response purposes.

[woodyrr]

Edit: OKisOK4me and I posted at the same time. He is correct.

Moore is adjacent to the BNSF Flynn yard which can be seen to the southeast of Crossroads Mall. There is the yard lead and a siding in the area often resulting in train congestion at every grade level crossing. In addition to inconvenience to the motoring public, a big issue is emergency vehicles are frequently delayed while responding to incidents while a train is occupying the siding or is traveling at restricted speed while entering the yard.

[rcjunkie]

your estimate of a few times daily is low. It may actually be closer to a 2-3 trains hourly. Not discounting the real congestion on 19th, I won't drive it generally if I can avoid it, but Moore has a lot of train traffic.

Your correct, a recent article in the Norman Transcript stated that there's 46 scheduled trains that pass through this area each day.

[soonermike]

I realize there are a lot of trains that pass through, but I'm assuming they are spaced out and only cause considerable traffic backups at certain times. Maybe "few" was an understatement, I just don't think it's as big of a problem as 19th St. As for emergency vehicles, there are fire stations on both sides of the tracks, and I'm sure they typically use one of the streets where the train tracks overpass the street. And I KNOW there are plenty of police officers on patrol around town
I appreciate that I may be a little biased since I live in southwest Moore and 19th is a daily problem for me and I almost never travel down 4th or 12th.
Either way, I really hope our city leadership becomes more proactive about improving our infrastructure. I've been considering putting our house on the market since the new junior high announcement seems to be helping property values in my neighborhood, but I really like living in Moore.

[ou48A]

One of the things that sometimes increases the train delays is a slow train speed because of bad tracks.
They issue slow orders to trains.

Maybe something could be done to decrease the frequency of bad tracks / slow orders?
This will be a big issue if we ever build a commuter rail system.

[jedicurt]

I realize there are a lot of trains that pass through, but I'm assuming they are spaced out and only cause considerable traffic backups at certain times.

even if you space them out over a whole 24 hour period, you are still looking at a train every 31 minutes... and that is if it is just the norman 46 scheduled daily...

[OKCisOK4me]

even if you space them out over a whole 24 hour period, you are still looking at a train every 31 minutes... and that is if it is just the norman 46 scheduled daily...

Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that besides local freight, you've got commodities ranging from double stack trains (all your technology products), grain trains (during the fall season), coal (down to the Texas power plants (which is more uncommon than anything--only because those go from Wyoming, down the Colorado front range, through Boise City, Amarillo, Wichita Falls, and then on to points past DFW)).

I believe it is BNSF's 2nd or 3rd busiest route in the US.

[ou48A]

Bakken oil trains have increased train traffic in our area.
This might be relived some in the future by new oil pipelines.

[bille]

I think the reason for the underpass would be like Edmond's, for emergency response purposes.

And Norman. Emergency response will win out every time.

I live in southeast Moore (off of 34th) and a bridge at 34th and I35 would be greatly beneficial for me. Depending on the time/day and where the business I'm going to is located in the 19th st area many times I'll just drive to Norman. Is it quicker? eh, sometimes, many times it's about the same but the difference is I don't have to sit in traffic, which I can't stand to do if I don't have to.

Putting an underpass on 4th (or 12th) really will make the traffic in Moore a super nightmare while the construction is going on. Anybody seen Norman on Robinson? Seems like they have been working that project forever! Traffic on 4th is already bad enough (a lot of spillover from 19th if you ask me). I'm thinking if this was the plan it should have been in the works years ago. Moore has been outgrowing its infrastructure for years now, I'm not sure why its so hard to plan ahead.

[proud2Bsooner]

I think that both are greatly needed. At times you can get stuck for 20 or so minutes when two trains are trying to get by each other (I don't think it is a track quality issue).

Moore applied for Federal funding to get a bridge for 34th, and it was denied. I believe that another transportation bill just passed Congress, so perhaps that will help. Still, 34th doesn't have much room to build supporting streets, but I agree, it would help.

IMO, they should kill the Wal-Mart light/entrance on the south side of Wal-Mart. The close proximity of that light with the Telephone Rd and I-35 Service Road lights makes the 19th St. congestion horrible on Saturdays.

[rcjunkie]

I think that both are greatly needed. At times you can get stuck for 20 or so minutes when two trains are trying to get by each other (I don't think it is a track quality issue).

Moore applied for Federal funding to get a bridge for 34th, and it was denied. I believe that another transportation bill just passed Congress, so perhaps that will help. Still, 34th doesn't have much room to build supporting streets, but I agree, it would help.

IMO, they should kill the Wal-Mart light/entrance on the south side of Wal-Mart. The close proximity of that light with the Telephone Rd and I-35 Service Road lights makes the 19th St. congestion horrible on Saturdays.

This would only make the traffic congestion much worse.

[proud2Bsooner]

How? You make people coming and going to and from Wal-Mart do it on Telephone Rd. Many would have to go North, which would clear out more people from the 19th area. It might back up the WM parking lot, but who cares? People should use the exits on the far North end of the lot.

I don't know if you have ever been westbound on 19th on a Saturday. But getting through the lights at I-35 svc rd, WM, and Telephone can sometimes take 10 minutes. The lights aren't synchronized...which may actually be the real solution.

Not saying you're wrong...just saying that the WM light jams things up on Saturdays.

[bille]

34th bridge lost out on the Federal funding to the Rock Creek bridge iirc. That's not all that surprising factoring in what/who all lives there and can benefit from the Rock Creek bridge.

Removing the light/closing the south Walmart entrance would make the service road running along the east side of Walmart even more of a nightmare, no bueno! That entire area is a chaotic mess when there's a high volume of traffic and it's only going to get worse. The recent changes helped but they are more of a bandaid if you ask me. I HOPE the city hasn't washed their hands of that and considered it done. Perhaps increasing emergency response times from the nearby firestation may help speed things up...it has to be happening already (the slower response times).

[MrZ]

Emergency vehicles has to be the big reason this is needed. I was at the La Petite on 4th and Eastern in 2004 when a car drove through the front of the building. The police station was less than a mile away and the first police officer to show up took about 4 minutes and he said he barely missed getting hit by the barrier coming down for an oncoming train. If he had been held up by the train it would have been several more minutes until the next responder showed up. Luckily all the children were safe (they had just gone into the lunch room and missed being crushed by less than a minute), but if there had been injuries that time could have been the difference in outcomes.
Not to mention it is just damn luck every time I get to the tracks at 4th or 12th street the barrier is coming down and many times there are TWO trains passing at once.

[OKCisOK4me]

Any chance one of you fine Normanites can snap some pics for us? I don't wanna wait for the Google Car...