Placentia is a city in northern Orange County, which
consists of the unincorporated community of Atwood. By the 1990s, Placentia's
downtown had become somewhat run-down in comparison to those of its neighbors;
city officials pinned much of the blame on the railroad tracks that had once
brought the town so much prosperity, but were now largely occupied by trains
barreling through town on their way to the Midwest from the ports of Los
Angeles and Long Beach. Inspired by the Alameda Corridor project in southern
Los Angeles, Placentia created a project, OnTrac, which called for the tracks
to be rerouted through a concrete-lined ditch approximately ten feet below
grade level, reducing noise and increasing safety via the elimination of grade
crossings. However, fiscal mismanagement and the withdrawal of promised federal
funds resulted instead in the project nearly bankrupting the city, which was
forced to drastically curtail services. As of Fall of 2005 the city has
abandoned plans to sink railroad tracks into trenches due to a lack of federal
funding. The city has instead decided to build over/underpasses along 4 major
intersections in an effort to ease traffic. The new plans will cost an
estimated $170 million as compared to the $543 million originally needed to
sink the railroad tracks. |