Development of the Optimization Model for Improving Safety at Rail Crossings in Florida

The State of Florida has been recognized for its freight mobility and increasing volumes of international trade. A significant portion of freight handled in the State of Florida is transported by rail. Along with the growing demand for rail-freight transportation, safety at highway-rail grade crossings (HRX) has posed a significant challenge to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). A significant number of accidents have been reported at the highway‐rail grade crossings in the State of Florida over the years, which highlights the necessity of safety improvement projects at certain crossings. In order to assist the FDOT personnel with resource allocation among the highway-rail grade crossings in the State of Florida, a standalone application, “HRX Safety Improvement”, was designed in this project. The standalone application is able to estimate the potential hazard values of the highway-rail grade crossings in the State of Florida based on the Florida Priority Index Formula, considering the average daily traffic volume, average daily train volume, train speed, protection factor, and accident history. Furthermore, the standalone application “HRX Safety Improvement” is able to conduct resource allocation among the most hazardous highway-rail grade crossings with the aim to minimize the overall hazard at the highway-rail grade crossings or the overall hazard severity at the highway-rail grade crossings. The developed methodology was applied to the highway-rail grade crossings in the State of Florida. The sensitivity of resource allocation decisions to different attributes was analyzed (e.g., changes in the total available budget, changes in the number of available countermeasures, changes in the hazard severity weight values).

• Record URL:
  https://fdotwww.blob.core.windows.net/sitefinity/docs/default-source/research/reports/fdot-bdv30-977-26-rpt.pdf
• 
• Summary URL:
  https://fdotwww.blob.core.windows.net/sitefinity/docs/default-source/research/reports/fdot-bdv30-977-26-sum.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/54019
• Corporate Authors:

  Florida A&M University - Florida State University

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Tallahassee, FL  United States 

  Florida Department of Transportation

  605 Suwannee Street
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32399-0450
• Authors:
  • Dulebenets, Maxim A
  • Moses, Ren
  • Sobanjo, John
  • Ozguven, Eren E
  • Abioye, Olumide F
  • Kavoosi, Masoud
  • Pasha, Junayed
• Publication Date: 2020-2-28

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 340p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Highway safety; Improvements; Methodology; Optimization; Railroad grade crossings; Railroad safety; Resource allocation
• Geographic Terms: Florida
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01739506
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 042485
• Contract Numbers: BDV30-977-26; TWO 977-26
• Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, STATEDOT
• Created Date: May 18 2020 11:29AM