§ 38-4 — Duty to reconstruct or construct grade crossings

Sec. 38-4. - Duty to reconstruct or construct grade crossings.

(a) It is hereby made the duty of each railroad company owning, controlling, maintaining or operating railroad tracks crossing a public street at a grade within the corporate limits of the city to reconstruct (in case of existing tracks) and to construct (in the case of future tracks) any and all such tracks according to the various categories of streets set forth below. Once tracks crossing a street have been reconstructed or constructed according to said categories, it shall be the duty of each railroad company to keep any and all such tracks, at all times thereafter, in a good and safe condition until said grade crossing is again reconstructed in compliance with this section 38-4. (b) There are hereby established three categories of street crossing to be used by each railroad company when reconstructing or constructing a grade crossing: (1) Category I: Major street, as defined in section 38-1 of this chapter. (2) Category II: Any public street which has a traffic count of 3,500 or more but less than 10,000 motor vehicles per day over the railroad track, where the traffic count is the total of the number of vehicles crossing the railroad track from each direction. (3) Category III: Any public street other than Categories I and II above. (c) Each railroad company shall reconstruct or construct grade crossings over public streets in Categories I and II using not less than the standard permanent type materials such as steel; steel reinforced molded rubber; high density polyethylene; full depth timber or other permanent type materials acceptable to the Director of Houston Public Works. (d) Each railroad company shall reconstruct or construct grade crossings over public streets in Category III using not less than the standard plain bituminous materials. (e) It shall be the duty of the traffic engineer to conduct a survey and study of all existing railroad crossings in the city, and, from this survey and study, to compile and maintain a list or lists of all such crossings, together with the name of each railroad company owning or controlling each crossing and the type of crossing required under subsections (c) and (d). The list for each railroad company shall rank the crossings in the order of priority to be reconstructed in accordance with subsections (c) and (d) hereof, and it shall be the duty of each railroad company to secure these lists from the traffic engineer and to commence and complete a program of systematic reconstruction of all such crossings. (f) In addition to the systematic reconstruction required in subsection (e) hereof, the traffic engineer may, from time to time, notify a railroad company that a particular track (or tracks) crossing a street is in such state of disrepair that it must be reconstructed in compliance with subsections (c) and (d) hereof, regardless of the priority assigned to such crossing, and the railroad company shall thereafter start and complete such reconstruction within a reasonable time, but in no event shall such time exceed 120 days. (g) Any railroad company that disagrees with any decision made by the traffic engineer under this section shall have ten days from the date it was notified of that decision by the traffic engineer to appeal such decision to a three-member board to be known as the grade crossing review board. Such board shall be composed of the directors of Houston Public Works, the department of administration and regulatory affairs, and the department of planning and development or their designees. The director of Houston Public Works or designee shall serve as chairman of the grade crossing review board and notify the appealing railroad company in writing of the time and place for hearing such appeal. (h) At the time and place designated for such hearing, the appealing railroad company and the traffic engineer shall attend and present all relevant facts concerning the decision under appeal. After considering all the facts and circumstances presented at the hearing, the grade crossing review board, by a majority vote, shall issue a decision in writing to both parties upholding, modifying or overruling the decision of the traffic engineer. Such written decision shall be made within five days after the date of the hearing and the decision of the grade crossing review board shall thereafter be complied with as the decision of the traffic engineer. (i) Any railroad company violating any of the provisions of this section 38-4 may be enjoined or mandamused by a suit filed by the city in a court of competent jurisdiction, and this remedy shall be in addition to other penalty provisions.

(Code 1968, § 39-4; Ord. No. 82-1954, § 2, 11-23-82; Ord. No. 85-297, § 1, 3-5-85; Ord. No. 90-635, § 81, 5-23-90; Ord. No. 93-514, § 58, 5-5-93; Ord. No. 08-52, § 63, 1-16-08, eff. 1-26-08; Ord. No. 2018-11, §§ 26, 49, 1-10-2018)