Old Town Tacoma residents will endure at least two more months of blaring locomotive horns after a malfunctioning wayside horn system at the McCarver Street and Ruston Way railroad crossing forced BNSF Railway engineers to sound full locomotive horns.

The fix was supposed to be done by the end of June. Now it won't happen until the end of August.

The delay comes down to a new BNSF authorization process that requires the City of Tacoma to hire third-party railroad flaggers before installation work can begin on the $50,000 replacement wayside horn.

That requirement pushed the timeline back roughly two months, according to Tacoma News Tribune reporter Isha Trivedi, who reported the story on June 26.

A wayside horn is a stationary device mounted at a crossing that directs sound down the intersecting roadways rather than along the track, operating at a lower volume than a locomotive horn.

When the system malfunctions, federal regulations require BNSF to resume sounding the full locomotive horn until repairs are complete.

Neighbors near the crossing have told the Tribune the horns are disruptive enough to keep them up at night. The Tribune reported the noise issue has affected the neighborhood since at least Wednesday, April 22.

The city has called the repair a priority, according to the Tribune's reporting. No specific date in August has been announced for the installation, and no follow-up public meeting has been scheduled.