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WIM <br />221 E Park Shores Circle <br />Indian River Shores, FL 32963 <br />March 4, 2014 <br />Comments regarding high-speed railroad in Indian River County <br />(Towns of Vera 1leadi. 5ebastiarn. 1'ellsinere. 117dian River Shores. Orchid) <br />• An electrical engineer with an advanced degree <br />• With b years' experience with a hornless heavy rail project, first as a volunteer for the <br />Town of Cohasset in Massachusetts_ tochairthe Mitigation Committee during the <br />Environmental and the Section 106 Hearings, and later in a paid position during the three <br />year construction period. So, I have first-hand experience working in a hornless rail <br />project. However I must mention that project differs from the proposed Florida project in <br />1. It was not high-speed (max speed was about 50 mph) <br />2. It was a government project (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) as <br />opposed to private <br />3. Its EIS was written by the MBTA's consultant, rather than the FRA. (More on EIS <br />However, from what I can see, the projects differences are, in fact, quite small. <br />Almost everyone in the county seems to be aware that there is a new high-speed rail project <br />proposed for Florida to connect the Orlando Airport to the Miami area. Further it is proposed <br />that there be no stops between Orlando and southern Florida. Thus, Indian River County will <br />receive nobenefitfrom the rail project, while being expected to suffer the consequence and <br />inconvenience of 32 additional trains passing through our County at -a very high rate of speed. <br />In order to somewhat compensate for the large increase of rail traffic the topic of a hornless <br />system has been brought up in conversation and the press, since it would no longer expose the <br />residents and businesses to the very loud warning horns. A hornless system requires very <br />different grade crossing designs to protect the public. One of the "new" crossing designs that we <br />have heard about is the quad gate crossing. A quad gate system is simple. Four gates are <br />utilized to block both sides of a roadway on either side of the tracks. This effectively stops any <br />vehicle from going around closed gates. Quad gates can be very expensive to design and install. <br />But, there are other schemes that can be utilized for a hornless system. The most common being <br />a channelized crossing. <br />1-3.1 <br />SmeadSoit Reprint Date Wednesday, December 14,2016 - 11:57:30 - BCC:1826, Attachment Id 1, Page 162 <br />