Texas Department of Transportation estimate<\/a> places the cost of raising a crossing at Zarzamora Street and Frio City Road at $65.7 million.<\/p>\n\u201cWe just realistically don\u2019t have the resources or opportunities to do that at every railroad in the city,\u201d McKee-Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
While some crossings are connected to the city\u2019s traffic signal system to detect train activity through a partnership with rail operators, Public Works Director Art Reinhardt said those account for less than 10% of crossings citywide.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can detect train activity that will speak to our traffic signal system and modify how the signal system operates,\u201d Reinhardt said. \u201cIt can potentially give extended green times to clear the crossing to prevent people from being stuck on the crossing, or also prohibit certain movements to protect people from entering into the crossing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reinhardt said developing a real-time notification system will require coordination with rail companies, which control much of the data related to train movement. <\/p>\n
Rail operators may be reluctant to share real-time train location data due to security concerns, including the transport of sensitive or hazardous materials, Reinhardt said.<\/p>\n
Because of those limitations, the city may need to focus on only detecting whether a crossing is blocked rather than tracking trains directly.<\/p>\n
Reinhardt said there are also cost and legal considerations that will need to be evaluated as part of the study, including potential funding for equipment, software and ongoing maintenance, as well as liability concerns if the system fails to provide accurate information.<\/p>\n
The proposal calls for identifying potential pilot locations at high-impact crossings, particularly those with frequent blockages or near emergency response routes, and developing performance metrics to measure effectiveness.<\/p>\n
City staff will now study the proposal\u2019s feasibility and are expected to bring recommendations, including potential costs and partnerships, to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at a later date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to an audio version of this story: For many San Antonio drivers, getting stuck behind a train…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82738,42553,20324,66622,10610,21157,28647,82739,82740,35962,82,84,83,82741,9237,92,82742,3028,35963,82743,6251,82744],"class_list":["post-211215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-apple-maps","tag-art-reinhardt","tag-district-2","tag-google-maps","tag-gps","tag-jalen-mckee-rodriguez","tag-public-works","tag-rail-grade","tag-rail-grade-seperation-projects","tag-railroads","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-street-level-railroad-crossigns","tag-texas-department-of-transportation","tag-top-story","tag-train-crossings","tag-typedaily","tag-union-pacific","tag-waze","tag-wc-500-750","tag-zarzamora"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}