Work on rail crossing gates will block trail near Bellingham’s Boulevard Park for several days
Installation of rail crossing gates will force a detour next week on the South Bay Trail at the north end of Boulevard Park, the city of Bellingham said on its Instagram social media site.
A bike and pedestrian detour using State Street and Bayview Drive will start Tuesday between 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and last about a week as pedestrian gates are installed.
“This closure allows us to make important safety improvements as part of our ongoing effort to establish the Fairhaven ‘quiet zone,’” the city said.
A quiet zone is a section of railroad track where all crossings meet safety standards so that trains are no longer required to sound their horn at each crossing, except in emergencies.
“This is part of a larger project to create two quiet zones in Bellingham — helping improve both safety and peace for our community,” the city said.
Recently, the city installed new gates at C Street and F Street at BNSF crossings. The Port of Bellingham added safety measures to a crossing on Harris Avenue near the Bellingham Cruise Terminal in Fairhaven.
Bellingham started to examine quiet zones in 2007, prompted by neighborhood concerns and a change in federal law, Chad Schulhauser, city engineer, told The Bellingham Herald in 2021.
Noise from train horns remains loud for residents uphill from the tracks, and carries farther at night, according to several studies the city has conducted.
After years of discussion, two quiet zones were established in 2014, one for the Fairhaven area and one along the Bellingham waterfront, where there are 11 total crossings, Schulhauser said.
“The process is long and expensive. We are making progress annually toward this goal,” he said.
