More Time Needed to Clear Derailed Train Cars
Railway officials say it may be a few days before the cars are removed and the area is clear.
Photos
A railway official predicted the track work associated with a train derailment near Hoover Forest Preserve would be finished Wednesday, but removing the railcars and other clean-up might take a few more days.
“We expect that most of the track work to be complete this afternoon,” said Mike Peters, who is the chief commercial officer for OmniTRAX, the management company for Illinois Railnet. “There will be some on-going clean up as we pick up a couple of the cars out there that are still off the tracks.”
The first priority is fixing the track so trains can run again. Then, crews will focus on clean-up, which involved removing the silica sand from the derailed cars before removing the cars themselves, Peters said.
The rail cars were carrying silica sand Monday evening when they derailed near Poplar Drive, just north of Kelly Avenue. Poplar Drive is the only road access to homes north of the railroad tracks, so clean-up efforts have hindered traffic flow in that area, Yorkville Police Chief Rich Hart said. Some residents reported having to wait for several minutes as workers directed traffic around a large pile of gravel on Poplar Drive near the tracks.
There was no immediate emergency, but Hart would have preferred railway officials discussed their plans with local authorities right after the incident. Hart said Yorkville officials were looking into filing complaints with the National Transportation Safety Board or through the Kendall County State’s Attorney’s Office.
“If (railway officials) would have coordinated with us, we probably would have asked them to construct a temporary crossing further down the tracks out of sand or something so emergency vehicles could get in there,” Hart said.
The company’s typical procedure includes coordinating with local officials, so Peters said he was surprised that Yorkville officials felt out of the loop. However, Hart and Yorkville Deputy Police Chief Larry Hilt said Yorkville officials had been talking with crews on the scene and a railway general manager since reaching out to them on Tuesday.
No one was injured during the derailment, and there was no immediate danger to area residents, authorities said.
“They don’t haul hazardous waste through there,” Hart said. “90 percent of what they haul is silica sand.”
Peters said railrail officials were investigating what caused the derailment.
In This article
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Hoover Forest Preserve
11210 Fox Rd, Yorkville, IL -
United City of Yorkville Police Department
804 Game Farm Rd, Yorkville, IL
Jillian Duchnowski
5:12 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
If you live near the clean-up area and have very specific questions or concerns, OmniTRAX customer service number might be able to help you: http://www.omnitrax.com/existing-customers/customer-service
debbie granat
5:53 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The kids in the picture had just gotten off the bus because the bus couldnt get thru.
Hopefully they made enough room for the younger kids.. So they could bring them to their respective stops.I also hope there is enough room for emergency equipment if necessary
Jillian Duchnowski
10:04 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
This doesn't have much to do with this situation, but do you know why this neighborhood was build with only one crossing over the railroad? What would they do, for example, if there was a train vs. car accident at the railroad crossing? Or if the crossing needed to be repaired or maintained for some reason?
debbie granat
7:02 am on Thursday, January 26, 2012
I'm not sure either..but White Oak subdivision only has one way for people on the other side of the tracks to cross as well. There are also sets of homes all along Van emmon as well as the Hideaway lakes campground that are in the same situation,and tha'ts just here in Yorkville. I think they should seriously consider selling that spur to the local municipalities to create a bike/multi-use path. I believe years ago it was for sale and this was an option. As the communities along this spur develop it is no longer safe to have a railroad the is so closely entwined with homes and businesses.
John Wentworth
9:06 pm on Thursday, January 26, 2012
It would seem that the local zoning and building department sould have considered a one entrance to a subdivision would be a problem and required multiple routes in & out. I believe that the railroad was in operation for about 100 years before the subdivision was built. Buyers should expect trains. Same thing applies to building a subdivision along a through road.
debbie granat
7:40 am on Friday, January 27, 2012
you are right ....we knew what we were getting into and I am still ok with it. They can and did clear the train cars quickly...the problems came because they dumped a huge pile of stone in the roadway and then parked their clean-up vehicles haphazardly. We understand the occasional accident ,but this is the 3rd major derailment in the past few years just within a 2 mile stretch. The fact that they don't need to notify anyone of these accidents ,I can only imagine there are many others that we don't hear about.Safety and upkeep of the tracks is my concern.
Megan Stemmet
9:05 am on Friday, January 27, 2012
This morning a car hit the gravel, and got stuck up on the pile right as the buses were trying to get through. They were stuck on the other side, and noone in back knew what was happening. I had to drive around the neighborhood and grab kids and drive them to the tracks were they had to run to the buses that were waiting.