By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
Earlier this year, Second Street at the rail crossing in Northfield closed for a few weeks for the construction of a small median dividing the road. With the completion of retrofitting another rail crossing, it’s one more step closer to the larger goal of implementing a quiet zone in Northfield. Quiet zones are areas where a city meets specific safety requirements at railroad crossings; trains are no longer required to sound their horn at each crossing, except in emergency situations.
Sean Simonson is the Engineering Director with the City of Northfield:
Listen to the news:
“They are a half mile long and include all the crossings that are public crossings, and then most of them would require flashing lights, gates, warning time, and then power out indicators.” – Sean Simonson, Northfield Engineering Director at the 4/15/2025 City Council Meeting
In order to take effect, safety measures have to be installed at the five rail crossings in Northfield at Fremouw Avenue, St. Olaf Avenue, Second Street, Third Street, and Highway 19/Fifth Street. Simonson stated that there were significant amounts of funds available from the Federal Railroad Administration.
“We are utilizing some federal funding to help pay for some of these quiet Zone implementation measures the Federal Highway Administration they have a section 130 program where public crossings can be improved for safety and that’s a 90/10 split where the federal government pays 90% And then the city would be responsible for 10% of that.” – Sean Simonson, Northfield Engineering Director at the 4/15/2025 City Council Meeting
So far, some improvements have been completed, with work being completed on several of the crossings next year and the largest amount of work happening on Highway 19 in conjunction with the State in 2028.
“I’m timeline you’re probably thinking when is this all going to be done while really it hinges on Highway 19 will be our last Improvement and again MnDOT controlled jurisdiction so once they do that project in 2028 we will be able to install the last pieces of the puzzle.” – Sean Simonson, Northfield Engineering Director at the 4/15/2025 City Council Meeting
Simonson noted that future projects could work with Dundas to expand the quiet zone for the whole area, but the focus for now was on the main core of Northfield.
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