By next summer, Bartlett will be a little quieter

The piercing whistles of the 4:26 a.m. train greet Bartlett's tired and weary every weekday like clockwork.

Sometime next year, the horns will be hushed.

That's because Bartlett just entered the final stages of a 10-year campaign aimed at achieving quiet zone status through the heart of town.

The village board Tuesday approved paying Metra $600,000 for the last set of improvements to four consecutive railroad crossings at Naperville Road and Western, Oak and Prospect avenues.

"We will finally have a respite from the blaring train whistles that go through our community in the middle of the night," Village President Catherine Melchert said.

The Federal Railroad Administration requires trains to sound their horns at every crossing in many towns. On weekdays, that's a total of 58 trains passing through Bartlett's 11 crossings on the Milwaukee District West line, which runs between Union Station and Elgin's Big Timber Road station.

Melchert has for worked for a decade alongside the Northwest Municipal Conference and other officials to convince the FRA to broaden a list of exemptions allowing a town to establish a quiet zone.

Engineers looked at criteria such as auto and pedestrian traffic, train volume, accident history and safety measures to come up with a risk index. Bartlett's risk index falls within the necessary bounds to go after a quiet zone.

The crossings at Oak and Western avenues were OK, but modifications to meet quiet zone requirements were necessary on the other two.

In 2005, Bartlett built a 100-foot-long raised island at the Prospect Avenue crossing. It bars cars from swerving out of their lanes to cut around the gates.

The fourth and final crossing at Naperville Road calls for a much larger investment.

It's the only one without the "constant time warning" signal system, which activates flashing lights and gates activated once a train comes within a certain distance.

Metra's bill to the village for that upgrade: $485,121.

The second project entails crossing improvements and two new pedestrian/bike path crossing gates.

That'll cost $113,576.

Before it committed such a large sum of money, Bartlett wanted assurance from the FRA it would gain quiet zone status if it completed the projects.

Despite some reluctance, the FRA gave its word in April. A little prodding from Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Peter Roskam helped, Assistant Village Administrator Paula Schumacher said.

Bartlett found an ally in Durbin, who has long been a proponent of railroad crossing safety programs but a critic of train whistles. In a 2001 guest column for the Daily Herald, Durbin wrote that whistles are not only a strain on people's ears, but a blight on property values.

The Springfield Democrat helped Bartlett secure a $27,500 grant from the FRA in 2001 to look at alternatives to train whistles. Bartlett also got $51,000 when Durbin proposed an Illinois Commerce Commission public education campaign and study on railroad crossing safety. It found that from 1990 to 2000, Bartlett had six vehicle collisions that resulted in one fatality.

Bartlett has other railroad crossings, but officials say the four about to achieve quiet zone status are the most residential and best fit the FRA formula. As the west side develops, a quiet zone may be on the horizon for crossings like Spaulding Road.

With Tuesday's agreement signed, Metra estimates construction will begin in spring 2008 and last two months.

Then it's bye-bye earplugs.