Grade crossings: from concrete and wood to rubber, steel and composite, manufacturers continue to look for new materials and new products to make crossings better

Railway Track and Structures, June, 2004 by Mischa Wanek

Manufacturers are still focused on making grade crossings smooth, safe and cost-effective. For more information on grade-crossing products, look at our "E & M Guide" and "Grade-crossing surface data" sheets.

Concrete

Century Group Inc. offers precast concrete panel crossings with numerous sizes and features available, such as custom surfaces to match colored and textured paving at passenger station platforms and sidewalks. Century Group also offers the option of providing crossties along with its crossing surfaces.

"We are also putting our crossings on steel crossties that has worked out very well for several different customers," said Jerry McCombs, Century Group's vice president marketing, Railroad Products Division.

Century Group has also developed bolt-on flangeway filler that is ADA-compliant and also has a high resistivity.

"We use a higher tensile strength rebar in all of our standard panels, along with a greater number and size of stud anchors. Also, we own all of our own batch plants, which batch all of our concrete. This gives us an edge in quality control/quality assurance," said McCombs.

The company has the ability to custom fabricate panels to any size or shape and has numerous field technicians to offer field service and technical support.

Hanson Pipe & Products Inc. produces Premier Concrete Railroad Crossings. These crossings are a tie-less system with a non-skid surface. The modules have two center panels for easy installation and/or removal from track. Curved crossings, restrained rail crossings, precast products, concrete pipe, manholes, catch basins and utility vaults are also available.

The concrete crossing has a surface with a diamond-plate pattern and the company meets ADA standards, when required, with the use of a flangeway filler that allows its product to be installed in metro areas with high foot traffic.

"Hanson Pipe is one of the largest pre-cast concrete producers in the United States, with more than 80 plants. The simplicity of our design makes it user-friendly and easily installed. It is a proven product with more than 30 years of in-situ performance. Premier works best with off-line applications and transit systems," said Ron Sparks, Hanson's West Coast representative.

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KSA manufactures a full-depth, full-width concrete panel system that can accommodate 8.5-foot-, 9-foot- and 10-foot-long wood ties. KSA also offers concrete panels that accommodate its 8.5-foot and 10-foot concrete ties and has upgraded the reinforcement in its panels to increase longevity and improve performance. The company notes that it is focusing on the 8-foot, 1-1/2-inch panel lengths due to customer needs and standardization.

"KSA takes great pride in our quality and our customer service. KSA is always looking to improve the products and ways in which to better serve our customers," said Scott Craig, sales and marketing manager at KSA.

Omega Industries, Inc., specializes in difficult crossings, such as extreme loads, turnouts, switches, frogs, DF track and diamonds. The company manufactures a concrete grade-crossing system with an attached rubber flangeway design. Other company products include: BNSF/UP common standard lag-down panels, non-lag, curve, turnout, diamond and ADA pedestrian crossing panels. Steel switch point covers and electrical access boxes are also available.

The company recently added a DF track, Direct Fixation, Pedestrian Crossing Panel to its line-up. The first panels were successfully installed this Spring in Minneapolis on the Hiawatha LRT project. Future installations are scheduled for the Mission Valley East LRT project in San Diego, Calif., and Seattle's Sound Transit LRT project.

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Mark Mottola, national sales manager at Omega, says questions regarding crossing longevity are brought up on a regular basis.

"I am often asked how long a concrete crossing will last. This is like asking how long a new car will last," said Mottola. "Crossing life is directly related to subgrade preparation, drainage and crossing approaches. There are quick, inexpensive ways to install a crossing and there are more thorough ways. Time and money often dictate how a crossing is built, though, as the saying goes, 'You get what you pay for.'

"New panels installed on old ties without 'disturbing' the subgrade will only last so long. A crossing will last much longer when the time is taken to excavate, rebuild and compact the subgrade, address drainage, use new ballast, install new 10-foot hardwood ties in the crossing and approaches, space ties to correspond with crossing-panel lag holes, weld rail joints, install Pandrol-type fasteners, machine tamp and pave wide, smooth roadway approaches. The extra time and dollars spent will definitely pay off in the long run."

OMNI Products, Inc., produces a range of concrete crossings, including the patented Embedded Concrete/Rubber system with the rubber flange seal molded into the face of the concrete panels and the Improved Concrete system, which incorporates OMNI's rubber RailGuard[TM] panels with precast concrete panels. OMNI's modular crossing, called TraCast[TM], is a system of precast concrete modules. Spring clip fasteners secure the rail to the base of the rail troughs and a continuous protective rubber rail boot insulates the rail from electrical interference.