Women in Engineering Design Competition
Hosted by Norfolk Southern and Penn State Altoona Railway Transportation Engineering Program
Jan-Oct 2020
Objective
Teams were tasked with analyzing railway statistics of two particularly hazardous California highway-rail crossings, developing and modeling a solution, and presenting it to judges in a three-round competition.
Considerations
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Existing safety features integrated in the rail crossing
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Pedestrian and car traffic
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U.S. Department of Transportation Guidance on Highway-Rail Traffic Control
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Cost, Time, other feasibility considerations
Background
Since 1980, there have been 37 reported incidents between two highway-rail crossings in Santa Fe Springs, CA. As a result of this and other close encounters, the California Public Utilities Commission labeled this intersection and grade crossing as the most hazardous one in the state.
Grade crossing A utilizes flashing red lights, gates, and warning symbols and signs on the road. Grade crossing B uses cantilever flashing lights, gates, warning symbols and signs on the road. There have been several governmental motions to separate the intersection from the grade crossing or create a railroad underpass, but both are too costly and time-consuming so neither solution has been pursued.
Approach
To differentiate between the grade crossings, we labeled them as A and B. My partner and I then identified a few key problems with the crossings and then devised specific solutions to address them.
Problems
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Stopping distance from tracks is too close
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Use of only flashing red lights
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Lack of safety for pedestrians
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Limited warnings before the intersection
Solutions
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Increase the stopping distance from the tracks
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Use the intersection traffic lights to monitor vehicle stoppage for grade crossing A
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Change the red lights at the grade crossings to more visible lights
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Add barriers between the tracks and sidewalks for pedestrians/vehicles
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Place railroad warning symbols before the intersections
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Loud bell and thicker/longer gates at the crossings
Stopping distances increased with brown lines indicating existing stoppage points and red lines indicated proposed new ones. The blue markings indicate the added markings to the roads. We proposed the addition of thicker, wider gates at each of these stoppage points to prevent cars from being able to swerve around the gates as easily as they can now with the existing smaller gates. Louder bells would also be added at these stoppage points to better signal drivers, as well.
There did not appear to be any particular safety precautions in place for protecting pedestrians. As such, the proposed solution and model includes a barrier between the walkway and the tracks to keep pedestrians out of the train tracks. Additionally, if for some reason a car swerves to avoid hitting a pedestrian, the car would crash into this barrier rather than driving into the train track.