Amtrak Agrees to Drill by Day

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by Allan Appel | Jun 16, 2010 8:09 am

(5) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: The Heights

Allan Appel Photo Honey DeRosa and Fran Bernardo will get their sleep back but not their trees now that Amtrak has switched its plans for emergency repair work in Fair Haven Heights.

Amtrak announced the balance of rock drilling and heavy hitting work to stabilize the slopes leading down to the tracks will be done between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. It expects to finish the job by July 9.

The shift away from night work was the consequence of a controversy that erupted last week when neighbors’ months’-long exasperation with Amtrak’s lack of response about nocturnal construction noise and lights reached a boiling point.

They filled local officials’ ears, and days later the night work was suspended, pending a public meeting. That meeting occurred Tuesday night.

A victory for local residents, the announcement was made at an impassioned but polite meeting orchestrated by Mayor John DeStefano with city and Amtrak staff and 50 Fair Haven Heights residents who gathered at the Pilgrim Church on East Grand Avenue.

Still the news was a kind of Pyrrhic victory for many residents.

The clear cutting of trees that sloped down from residents’ houses, protecting them both from train noise and burglars, will not be so easy to remedy.

“It looks like Ground Zero,” said Bernardo (at right in top photo, with DeRosa), who lives on Carroll Street.

“I’ve been here for 26 years and I never saw a house across the tracks,” said DeRosa. “Our neighborhood has changed forever.” DeStefano promised to follow through with Amtrak to discuss some reforestation.

Amtrak Division Engineer George Fitter (pictured) in effect apologized for not giving the city and neighbors sufficient notice about the work. However, he said the trees on the slopes leading down to the tracks had to be cut.

“Trees fall on the wires, burn the system out. On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, one fell and knocked out the whole corridor,” he said.
The mayor, who acted as a kind of marriage counselor between Amtrak and Fair Haven Heights neighbors, said that Amtrak has its responsibilities to keep the right of way safe, but “we want to help you to be a good neighbor.”

To that end he announced that the chain link fencing with non-diaphanous green slats and guard rail that Amtrak had erected along Russell and Clifton streets as part of its work would be removed.

An ornamental black steel picket fence will replace it.

At the announcement, applause broke out in the room. None was happier than Anne DeCola. The 63-year resident and self-styled “mayor of Russell Street” had told the mayor at the start of the meeting, “I had a beautiful country road, and now it’s a highway.”

“Thank you, mayor,” DeCola (pictured) said.

“Thank you, mayor,” he replied.

These bits of good news were scant satisfaction to neighbors who resented the trees being cut so aggressively.

“You cut with the same blade near residences as well as behind Home Depot,” said Fair Haven developer Fereshteh Bekhrad.

Maks Dmytruk, Jr. (pictured) has lived all his 53 years on Clifton Avenue. Behind him the slope to the tracks are now denuded. He said it reminded him of the 1980s when Amtrak engaged in similar episode of clear cutting. He said without the protection of the trees there was a rash of robberies at that time.

“I’m thinking of putting up my own fences, getting a dog. Watch out what you have in the back yard,” he cautioned.

Amtrak’s rescheduling of trains so it could finish the work by day was no small adjustment, said city transportation chief Mike Piscitelli. “George understood the concerns of the neighbors. Getting them to focus on a small area was a big lift for them, a big deal.”

The mayor promised a better notification system for residents to register their Amtrak complaints. He also took responsibility for working with Amtrak on maintenance of slopes, future trees, and tunnel.

He deployed Livable City Initiative’s Linda Davis to organize a walk this month for residents to have input on remediation of other matters related to Amtrak.

These included: the reforestation of the slopes (someone suggested dogwoods and smaller trees posing small danger to train wires); and repair of the sidewalks over the tracks on East Grand and on Clifton. With that input, another meeting will be scheduled within 45 days, DeStefano promised.

Between these jobs and the ongoing replacement of ties all along the line, Honey DeRosa shrugged and said the meeting was, in sum, good but sad. She predicted the problem will last for years.

“We’ll get some sleep at least,” she said.

Comments

posted by: Lisa on June 16, 2010 10:23am

Thank you Mayor, Alex Rhodeen, Mike P., Amtrak, neighbors - the replacement of that industrial-strength green fence on Clifton is a relief to hear about. I think Dogwoods are a great idea, or what about Lilacs? I live across the street from the tracks, and I don’t know what I would do if someone attacked the woods behind my house like that. I feel like random clear-cutting is not something that should be happening in 2010 - Amtrak should have taken a more modest approach, cutting only what needed to be cut. I wonder how much taxpayer money went to this emergency shoring-up work? At least some of my money will be well-spent on the new ornamental fence. Amtrak still needs to address the graffiti on their trestle at Hemingway and 1st Ave.

posted by: The Count on June 16, 2010 1:38pm

Once again, the East Shore Conservation Association drops the ball on a “quality of life” issue that ISN’T Tweed-New Haven Airport. Maybe Fair Haven doesn’t qualify as the “East Shore.” Too bad I’m the only one who sees the hypocrisy of environmental” groups such as this.

posted by: Angry Commuter on June 16, 2010 7:50pm

Coming in to New Haven there is a trash dump by the tracks where these people have just dumped things from their yards. Totally disgusting. I hope they are embarrassed now Amtrak has cut the trees down. I also hope Amtrak charges them for cleaning up their garbage

posted by: Chris O on June 16, 2010 9:05pm

In the last few days I have seen all I need to see to know why rail will not become a major player in commuter travel.

The face people Amtrak sent to the meeting were wholly incompetent. The PR person for Amtrak sat at the front of the room while the Mayor did his best to manage their issue.

The clear cutting around the vents purely a gratuitous project that has no relevance to the need for line clearance. They claim that clearing a forest dropping 500lb to 4 ton trees on the soft arkose rock that sits at 45% did not contribute to the need for this “emergency rock stabilization”; is laughable. Any third grader knows you clear a forest and get errosion.

You can watch the rail crews as they pass behind LoLowe’s each morning and afternoon as they head out to work on this project and the other work in Bradford. I loved the guy hanging onto the back of his rig with one hand and talking on his cell phonein the other in a baseball cap. Ther you might also notice the large stains on the tracks from unmitigated leaks.

Amtrack hides behind the Federal label and the powers that be seem unwilling to innitiate change. Just throw more money at incompetence and hope for the best. I am unwilling to do either.

posted by: oinonio on June 23, 2010 12:12pm

Thanks a lot, Fair Haven. Your whining has helped delay trains up and down the coast. I agree with angry commuter about the trash they dump near the tracks. This isn’t the 80s any longer, folks, pick up after yourselves if you want some respect.

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