POINT OF VIEW: Quiet zones good, but let’s think underground rail | www.mypalmbeachpost.com

Bruce Helander suggests, in this op-ed appearing in the Post, to look at going putting the rails underground in anticipation of greater amounts of train traffic. This increase in traffic will be due to the All Aboard Florida high-speed project and the eventual transit traffic on the FEC railroad that will serve the eastern municipalities along the coast. He points out the traffic that would be blocked at the Okeechobee railroad crossing in West Palm Beach.

Such an undertaking would add an enormous cost to the overall project, especially given the north-south length of the run. The geometry and depth versus the water table would surely be another complicating factor. While it might be a partial solution to the increased congestion and noise, I don't think it is being looked at in any serious way due to the overwhelming cost considerations. Click title for link.

Now is an opportune time for serious analysis to be given to the practical safety and efficiency of an excavated track that could go under a major traffic artery. It might just provide an unconventional solution for and different perspective on the heightened inconvenience, decreased efficiency and diminished productivity caused by the amplified roadblocks we surely are facing. With a multimillion-dollar budget announced for this new rail service, it would be worth the effort to invest a modest sum for an engineering study that might just present a viable alternative.

I lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan during the mid-1980s and there was a pivotal community issue about bridging or submerging train tracks or a major road, a number of alternatives were being looked at, to alleviate what were consistent traffic snarls due to freight trains and automobiles both vying for access to downtown. Click here for one of the flyover proposals.