At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Jefferson City Council approved to close the Union Pacific Railroad crossing at Pinet Street.

City Administrator Mike Palmer says the City wants to establish a quiet zone where every time a train passes through the City, the horns won’t need to be activated at every intersection.

He states that there are currently five at-grade crossings and Palmer explains why Pinet was selected as the first one to be permanently closed.

“Did traffic counts on Pinet, Maple, Wilson and several of the others, Pinet had the lowest traffic counts or crossing counts.  From the research, that made the most sense to try and close that one (Pinet) first.”

He comments that UP will pay the City $16,500 for every at-grade crossing that is permanently closed along with the Department of Transportation will also give $7,500.  UP will be responsible for the closure and the City is responsible for providing the permanent barricades at Pinet Street.

Palmer talks about how the barricades will be.

“There’s a certain criteria that they have to be.  That’s what the money will go towards is these permanent barricades  They’ll be very substantial like what you see on the highways, but those barricades will always remain.”

He’s hoping to use leftover funds to help pay for the rest of the crossings, once they are approved by the Council.  There is no timetable of when UP will start their procedure to close their crossing.

The only stipulation the City wanted in its agreement was to maintain the easement rights for utilities at the crossing.

The other crossings that will be considered for closure are Maple, Wilson, Grimmel and Cedar streets.