07-08-2015 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

SEH Building a Better World for All of UsQ9 June 18, 2015 Joel Hanson City Administrator City of Little Canada 515 Little Canada Road Little Canada MN 55117 Dear Joel: RE: City of Little Canada Railroad Quiet Zone Study Phase 3 Revised proposal letter SEN No. 126252 Thank you for the opportunity to provide professional services to the City of Little Canada to prepare preliminary plans for a railroad quiet zone implementation within the City. This letter serves as a Letter Agreement as set forth in our general engineering services contract. Background The City and its residents has been concerned about the impact of the railroad noise to the residents within the City from increased train traffic from the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The train noise is generated by the train horns blowing at six mainline grade crossings. This agreement will be the third phase of the recently completed quiet zone study to implement a railroad quiet zone within the City In the 1996.legislation, the federal government preempted local and state governments from regulating train horn noise. In 2005, after many years of investigation and rule making, final rules regulating train horn noise were adopted. There are six public grade crossings within the City that could potentially be included in a federally approved railroad quiet zone. The City was successfully in obtaining a grant from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) for 1,250,000 dollars. The grant was in the form of a general obligation bond. This type of funding has proven difficult to use on railroad property. The normal GO bond project would be fully constructed and operated by a public agency. Since July of 2015, the City, the City of Shoreview and SEH have had numerous meeting with MnDOT and the State to work through numerous issues. The project has reach a point the railroad agreements have been executed and the 60 day Notice of Intent has been prepared. The remaining tasks are : 1. To negotiate the bond agreement; 2. Work with the City and CP on construction related issues; 3. Coordinate with Elfering and Associate on fmal design details for the roadway improvements; 4. Keep the Council updated on the progress of the implementation; 5. Answer questions from the 60 NOI submittal; Engineers 1 Architects 1 Planners I Scientists Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc.. 3535 Vadnais Center Drive, 31 Paul, MN 5511.0-5196 SEH is 100% employee -owned I sehlnc.com I 651.490.2000 I 800.325.2055 I 888.908.8166 fax