ENCINITAS -- A City Council discussion of ongoing railroad work Wednesday prompted continued pleas from residents for pedestrian crossings.

The North County Transit District is about one month into its six-month Encinitas passing track project, a $6.2 million effort that will add a second set of rails between Chesterfield Drive and E Street.

Don Bullock, the district's manager of capital projects and construction, told the council that workers have completed nearly 70 percent of the "earthwork" needed to prepare the ground for the 1.7-mile passing track.

On Monday, crews will begin hauling dirt -- truckload after truckload of it -- on a route that will send loaded trailers chugging up Santa Fe Drive to reach Interstate 5.

The hauling will last about 10 days, Bullock said.

In Encinitas, a city bisected by the railroad, the topic of double-tracking draws consistent ire from residents and city leaders.

At a Leucadia Town Council meeting Tuesday, "traffic and pedestrian safety were on everyone's list," said Kathleen Lees, a Town Council member.

"We're going to need lots of (pedestrian) crossings," Lees said.

Mayor Jerome Stocks told Lees one of three planned pedestrian crossings would be positioned in Leucadia, at El Portal Street. Two others are to be installed in Cardiff, one at Santa Fe Drive and the other at Montgomery Avenue.

Lees persisted. In Cardiff, the railroad only blocks people from reaching the beach, she said, while in Leucadia, the railroad blocks access to businesses, homes and schools.

Stocks also persisted, citing plans for a Leucadia crossing near Paul Ecke-Central School as a first step.

"The trip of a thousand miles starts with a single step," he said.

Rachelle Collier of Leucadia told the council she and her husband were beach people, and to reach the beach, they illegally cross the tracks.

"I want you to fight, fight, fight so we can have another pedestrian crossing," she said.

Over the years, one weapon in Encinitas' fight was a $315,000 study the City Council ordered to outline double-tracking options. The report concluded that a covered trench, at an estimated $237 million, was the best choice.

Councilman James Bond on Wednesday bemoaned the study having landed in the tank as well as a lack of planning and political will that would have pushed that covered-trench concept forward.

The passing track project, he said, has "kind of morphed from what we saw as ideal into what we can settle for."

Also irritated was Jim Clark, the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce president.

Colorful Carpentier Parkway, he said, is sandwiched with unpopular double-tracking on one side and unruly vagrants on the other.

Clark demanded increased police presence to curb harassment from transients who loiter along the parkway between the railroad and San Elijo Avenue.

He blamed vagrants for damage to an irrigation system and landscaping that was installed by volunteers.

"A lot of nasty stuff is happening at the park," Clark said. "We'd like to switch that harassment so it's the other way around, so we're harassing them."

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.