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Resident asks commissioners to order diagnostic review of Atchison Road crossing to pursue a 'quiet zone'
Summary
A resident told the commissioners loud train horns at the Atchison Road crossing are reducing quality of life and urged the county to direct Public Works to conduct a Federal Railroad Administration-style diagnostic review to support establishing a quiet zone; no board action was taken at the meeting.
A Thurston County resident urged the Board of County Commissioners on April 15 to direct Public Works to perform a diagnostic review of the Atchison Road railroad crossing as a step toward establishing a quiet zone and reducing frequent train horn noise.
Brian Muirhead, who identified himself as a county resident, described repeated horn activations at the Atchison Road crossing and said technical reviewers he consulted believed the county’s proposed supplementary safety measure—a nontraversable median curb to prevent drivers from circumventing gates—would address the elements of the crossing cited by the county’s risk pool as problematic.
Muirhead said he had received a letter from the Washington Counties Risk Pool explaining why the pool would not cover quiet zones, and he reported that Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) experts he contacted recommended using diagnostic reviews that several other Washington jurisdictions used as the basis to design and approve quiet zones.
He asked the board to direct Public Works to conduct a diagnostic review involving county public-works staff, the FRA, utilities, the Utilities and Transportation Commission and the railroad so the county could respond to the risk pool’s objections. Muirhead said citizen volunteers with engineering backgrounds would support county staff during a diagnostic review.
No formal board action was recorded in response to the request during the public-comment period; Public Works and county staff did not report a follow-up direction during the meeting.
