HIGHWAY-RAILROAD GRADE CROSSINGS: A GUIDE TO CROSSING CONSOLIDATION AND CLOSURE
This guide is about highway-railroad grade crossing consolidation and closure -- an effective, but often overlooked, option for improving grade crossing safety. The advent of the systems or corridor approach to evaluating crossing safety and the need to address the persistent problem of accidents at low volume crossings have increased attention on crossing consolidation and closure. The benefits of consolidating unnecessary grade crossings include: fewer intersections at which collisions between motor vehicles and trains can occur; removal of a potential safety hazard at a cost that is often only a fraction of the cost of warning signals and gates; redirection of limited resources to the remaining crossings which have the greatest public necessity; and a reduction in the number of at-grade crossings which may need costly improvements or grade separation in the future to accommodate high speed rail operations. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is encouraging states, political subdivisions and railroads to reduce the 280,000 public and private grade crossings by 25%. In support of this initiative, the FRA developed case studies of actual grade crossing consolidation and closure projects. This guide is derived from the case studies. The guide condenses the lessons learned from both the successful and unsuccessful projects. It was prepared to disseminate information to state transportation agencies, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, and railroads on how to gain local support for grade crossing consolidation and closure projects. The case studies unequivocally demonstrate that the main obstacle to the rationalization of redundant crossings is local opposition. Even when formal approval from the local government is not required by law, local endorsement of the project (or at a minimum the absence of local opposition) is often a de facto requirement. The focus of this guide is a model approach for working with local communities to reach voluntary agreement to consolidate unnecessary crossings and a checklist of the factors commonly found in the successful projects.
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Corporate Authors:
Federal Railroad Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 - Publication Date: 1994-7
Language
- English
Media Info
- Pagination: 31 p.
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Benefits; Case studies; Communities; Guides to information; Highway safety; Lane closure; Public relations; Railroad grade crossings
- Uncontrolled Terms: Closures; Community support; Public support
- Old TRIS Terms: Guides
- Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors; I73: Traffic Control;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00720232
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: NTL, TRIS, USDOT
- Created Date: Apr 19 1996 12:00AM