Railroad Sound Wall Is OKd for Anaheim

Anaheim residents have been waiting for this Christmas present for more than a decade.

City officials announced Wednesday that Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration have authorized a sound wall alongside railroad tracks that run along the Anaheim-Yorba Linda border.

The wall has been the focus of a decadelong dispute between the neighboring cities. Anaheim residents, tired of the vibration of passing trains, spent years lobbying the City Council and legislators to secure $13 million in funding for a 2.5-mile wall.

When it finally seemed like the wall would be built, Yorba Linda sued Anaheim, contending it would be an eyesore.

“We would think we were there, and then something else would pop up,” said resident Glenda Bridges.

“We’ve met with so much bureaucracy.”

But after his election in November 2002, Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle made resolving the sound wall debate a priority. He and Mayor Pro Tem Thomas Tait met with Yorba Linda officials.

Yorba Linda agreed that in exchange for allowing the sound wall, it would get its own noise barrier on the opposite side of the tracks -- a mound of dirt topped with a wall and leafy trees to mask it -- at a cost of $1.8 million.

Anaheim’s 16-foot-high wall will run between Imperial Highway and Weir Canyon Road on the south side of the tracks.

The city will probably award a contract in early February, with construction expected to begin in March.