The 'sealed corridor search for safer crossings

Railway Age, August, 1997 by WIlliam C. Vantuono

The North Carolina Department of Transportation and Norfolk Southern, with a host of innovative technologies, are trying to show that highway-rail grade crossing salty can be dramatically enhanced at a reasonable cost.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.: A loaded semi-trailer approaches a highway-rail grade crossing equipped with gates, bells, and flashing lights. The lights and bells have been operating for several seconds, and the gates are just beginning to lower. But instead of stopping, the heavy truck rolls through the crossing at full speed, breaking off a gate in the process. Moments later, a Norfolk Southern freight train passes through the crossing.

It's a near miss, one of many that occur at crossings all over the U.S. at an alarming rate far greater than the number of actual collisions.

The following day, at the same crossing, the scene is repeated--with (coincidentally but not surprisingly) another semi-trailer from the same trucking company.

This crossing, however, located at Sugar Creek Road, is a bit more sophisticated than most others in the U.S. NS, in cooperation with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, has equipped it with a video surveillance system to gather data on motor vehicle violations, and the system's cameras have captured both incidents in detail.

When the trucking company is contacted by NS about the incidents and is asked to reimburse the cost of replacing the broken gates, it initially denies having any trucks in the area at all, on both days. But when it is confronted with the videotaped evidence, it agrees to pay for the damages.

Next time--maybe--the offending drivers will hopefully know better than to tempt fate and try to beat the train. A great deal more than a gate arm might be lost.

Charlotte's Sugar Creek Road crossing, on a busy, double-track NS right-of-way where an average of 24 59-mph freight trains and six 79-mph passenger trains (including Amtrak trains and the state-funded Piedmont) operate every day, is one of some 190 public highway-rail grade crossings on North Carolina's 174-mile Raleigh-Greensboro-Charlotte rail corridor, a key segment of the Federal Railroad Administration's Washington, D.C.-Raleigh-Charlotte corridor designated under ISTEA Section 1010 as a potential high speed rail corridor. As the centerpiece of NCDOT's $5.1 million "Sealed Corridor" highway-rail grade crossing safety project, Sugar Creek Road is also equipped with four-quadrant gates, median barriers, and some of the latest grade crossing warning and health monitoring technology.

"Decreasing the risk of highway-rail crossing collisions--the leading cause of fatalities in the railroad industry--is a key element of the high speed rail corridor development plan," says FRA. "The identified corridors average one crossing per mile. FRA is working with railroads and state and local governments to eliminate crossings where possible and to demonstrate affordable and practical technologies to prevent motorists from attempting to beat trains to crossings."

The Sealed Corridor project, a joint effort of NCDOT, Norfolk Southern's Innovative Research Group, and FRA with input from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the ITS Joint Program Office of the Federal Highway Administration, is being conducted on the 92-mile, state-owned Greensboro-Charlotte segment of the Raleigh-Charlotte corridor. With 130 public and 35 private grade crossings, this segment was selected because it contained the highest concentration of rail traffic and the highest rate of crossing incidents. To date., FRA has awarded NCDOT Section 1010 and Section 1036 grants totaling $4.5 million, and these and other funds are being applied to a variety of initiatives in addition to the four-quadrant gates; and median barriers used at "sealed" crossings such as Sugar Creek Road:

* Traffic separation studies to consolidate redundant crossings and close those deemed unsafe.

* Use of long gate arms and articulated gate arms.

* Video surveillance and data collection.

* Video enforcement.

* Driver behavior studies, with an analysis of violator demographics.

* Use of improved signage.

* Use of low-cost, innovative warning devices at private crossings.

ONE CORRIDOR, MANY SOLUTIONS

Two-hour travel time from Raleigh to Charlotte (which NCDOT says is a goal) will require an average train speed close to 90 mph. "What's needed is a fully-protected corridor," says NCDOT Rail Division's Assistant Director for Engineering and Safety Paul Worley. "By 'Sealed Corridor' we mean a rail right-of-way that approaches impenetrability when a train is in harm's way."

"Our objective is to develop a lower-cost solution," says Worley. The estimated cost of upgrading the entire Raleigh-Charlotte corridor for high speed operation is $300-500 million, which Worley says "is small compared to our state's $2 billion annual transportation budget. We're aggressively pursuing grade crossing closures, with a goal of about 30 to 35, but this is only a partial solution when you're working off a base of 190. So, how can we grossly reduce our exposure in an affordable way?"