Railroad agrees to fund landscaping in Lombard

Trees and shrubs will join train signals and a pedestrian underpass along the Union Pacific Railroad tracks through Lombard.

In a letter to village staff and trustees, Union Pacific said the company will pay for up to $1,500 of landscaping to shield a structure holding train signals recently installed over the tracks near Craig Place.

Residents on Parkside Avenue south of the new structure asked the village to provide landscaping as a more appealing sight than the signal bridge, said Carl Goldsmith, director of public works.

The village plans to install evergreen hedges to block the bottom of the signal bridge and a control shed from view, said Trustee Peter Breen.

“No one wants a signal bridge in their back yard, or their front yard, or their community, but Union Pacific has a right to put it there,” Breen said. “What I’m looking to do is arrive at constructive solutions where we can, as best as possible, screen off these structures.”

Union Pacific’s commitment to fund landscape improvements is a good start toward finding compromises related to the signal bridge near Craig Place and another just west of Grace Street, Breen said.

Union Pacific will investigate whether it removed trees from the property of six homeowners on Prairie Avenue north of the signal bridge west of Grace Street, according to the letter.

“The difficulty is there is no buffer,” said Breen, who lives on Prairie, three doors down from the signal bridge. “Particularly for the folks that live directly next to the signal bridge, you’re talking very near to their back property line.”

The company will evaluate plat documents and survey the area if necessary to determine if any trees were removed from homeowners’ land, spokesman Mark Davis said. If trees were removed, Union Pacific will purchase replacement trees, but the company won’t plant them.

Lombard Village President Bill Mueller said that’s not good enough.

“It’s their responsibility to put trees in and make it better than it was,” Mueller said. “The village will make sure, to the best of our ability, that we get proper landscaping everywhere along that project.”

Mueller said he’s opposed the railroad project since discussions began three years ago. He voiced concerns in April about maintenance of a pedestrian walkway to be built under the tracks at Park Avenue beginning next spring.

Trustees voted to upgrade the walkway’s design from a basic tunnel to a stone-cast underpass with a metal ceiling, LED lighting and handrails. The upgrade will cost the village about $120,000, and it will be responsible for maintaining the tunnel, according to Union Pacific and Metra.

Mueller said he supports the tunnel upgrade, but doesn’t think the village should be responsible for its upkeep.

The enhanced tunnel will be “something that is certainly worthwhile for our community, that is safe for our community and that will be used by residents both for the railroad and to move residents from the south side of the tracks to the north side and the downtown area,” he said.

Although the village will be required to maintain the underpass, trustees still plan to have Metra install the upgraded design when construction begins next spring, Goldsmith said.