Lake County Waukesha Quiet Zone Corridor Compliance Study

In 2020, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) performed a routine inspection on the 59 crossings within the 29-mile quiet zone corridor through Lake County, IL, and found over 40 crossings to be non-compliant with current quiet zone regulations. Facing termination of the quiet zone, the Village of Buffalo Grove and a coalition of 10 agencies hired CMT to assist in performing a quiet zone compliance study – a task of critical importance for each agency to maintain the quality of life and promote future growth within the community that resides alongside the CN Railway’s Waukesha mainline.

CMT was responsible for reviewing the FRA non-compliance report, investigating existing conditions, and developing a comprehensive corrective action and implementation plan to preserve the state of the quiet zone corridor.

In an effort to further understand the non-compliance rulings, CMT coordinated and collaborated with the FRA – an effort that resulted in six crossings being reclassified as compliant, saving our clients critical time and money in implementing improvements.

CMT developed proposed improvements informed by the study, which included a variety of updated signage, SSM median improvements, ASM median improvements, and reduced speed waiver. Additionally, CMT submitted the periodic quiet zone affirmation to provide the required updates to existing conditions, updated traffic, and risk assessment.

CMT is currently leading the design phase for the respective median improvements, and the quiet zone corridor will be fully compliant by 2023.