The Sunnyvale Sun

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Improved safety was the goal behind paved entry to tracks

By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL

Weather permitting, any turkeys trotting around the Sunnyvale Caltrain station this Thanksgiving could have a convenient, formal way to get to Hendy Street and the surrounding neighborhood north of the tracks.

On Nov. 6, crews from H & H Construction, a Stockton-based company specializing in railroad construction, began digging trenches to lay electrical lines that will eventually power lights over a graded, paved entryway onto the Caltrain platform.

According to Caltrain chief operation officer Chuck Harvey , the entire project, which is being funded by Caltrain, VTA and the city of Sunnyvale, will cost approximately $130,000.

H & H superintendent Jerome Rixter, during a break in work on Nov. 9, said the project could be as done as early as Nov. 22 if the weather stays mild. If rains hit, the project would not be completed until after Thanksgiving.

"I'd say it's going pretty well so far," Rixter said.

Before construction began, a wrought-iron fence stood where an informal hole once was. The hole had been used by residents for years off-and-on to access the downtown area without having to walk to Sunnyvale Avenue or use the Mathilda overcrossing.

The hole was never intended to be an accessway, and it was closed after a complaint was filed against the city under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Even with the iron fence up, residents pulled and cut the chain link on either side of it so they could walk through to the tracks.

Officials from Caltrain and the city of Sunnyvale expressed concern at the continued vandalism of the fence because it compromised fences meant to keep people away from speeding trains.

More than a dozen people have been killed by trains this year on Caltrain tracks, and more than half of those deaths were accidents.

"We're glad to see the project getting under way, and we expect it to be finished quickly. This obviously has been important to the neighborhood, and we're happy that once it was brought to the city's attention, we were able to get the project designed and construction started," said Sunnyvale communications officer John Pilger.