Low-cost highway/rail intersection study
Low-volume crossings are the site of approximately 70 percent of rail-highway fatalities in Minnesota. Currently, an active warning system costs between $100,000 to $150,000 to design and install in the state—a cost that prevents widespread deployment of the systems. Mn/DOT, however, believes there is a better way and is investing in alternatives to traditional railroad crossing technology, said Brad Estochen of Mn/DOT's Office of Traffic Security and Operations.
Roughly 4,000 of our state's 5,200 public railroad crossings have no active warning system, Estochen said, and Mn/DOT funds approximately 30 to 40 signal projects annually. All told, it would cost $400 million to upgrade these crossings to active—and a whopping $9 billion for nationwide implementation.
As part of a one-year operational test, Mn/DOT is installing a low-cost active warning system at 30 low-volume crossings, in cooperation with the Twin Cities and Western Railroad (TC&W) and the project coordinators. The low-cost system, developed by C3 Trans System LLC, could cost only one-tenth of the current system per crossing. "The $10,000 target price could make a huge difference in the number of crossings that have an active warning system," Estochen said, which should lower the number of crashes and fatalities.
The crossings are located on the TC&W corridor between the Twin Cities and South Dakota in Carver, Chippewa, McLeod, and Renville counties. Features include solar power for the main energy source (plus battery backup), radio-based communication, and GPS data exchange. The goal is to conduct the field test in July 2004, after which Mn/DOT will perform an evaluation of the warning systems to determine their safety performance, operational performance, cost, reliability, and maintenance implications.
A 30-day in-service test of the system has already shown positive results, with reasonably consistent warning times. A final evaluation report will be ready by December 2004.
For more about the project, contact Estochen at Bradley.estochen@state.mn.us or visit www.dot.state.mn.us/guidestar.
Source material adapted with permission from Bradley Estochen.