I’ve notice the approaches to railroad crossings start sooner on highways(for example US79 just southe of I40 in AR) than they do in cities and towns.Also when I was growing up 4th Ave,which has the track running down the middle of it is not blacktopped,making the approaches rough back then and on top of that wooden crossing surfaces.Now the approaches are blacktopped and the crossing surfaces are concrete.4th Ave still has that rough surface,but most crossing approaches are now blacktopped.Main Street and 13th Ave crossings had rubber mat surfaces and now they are concrete.
The approach configuration is going to be a function of the normal highway speed. Low speed won’t be as flat and smooth as a 55 mph approach.
What’s between the rails (and immediately on either side) has been a bone of contention for years.
Concrete is nice, but I’ve seen some indications of problems on the rail side. Rubber is nice, but around here the snowplows raise cain with them…
The crossing in Niles, IL (at a point where the Metra - Milw West line is at top speed between Edgebrook in Chicago and Morton Grove) has a rubber or ruberoid crossing, with the patterned “dots.” This is a particularly crucial intersection: heading west across the tracks the driver encounters a small road (Lehigh) that parallels the track, and just after that a Shell station with lots of traffic. Traffic backs up even in non-rush times. Eastbound there’s the same gamut to run in reverse, and then back-ups are possible because Niles has a nursery and a Nissan dealership just to the east, and over the (practically invisible) line into Skokie there are strip malls on both sides.
The rubber whoozits has worked superbly for at least a decade, and since we go shopping out there at least twice a month I would have probably known about a replacement (“probably” because I suppose it could have been worked on during odd hours) . . . otherwise it didn’t get beat up by heavy car and truck traffic on Touhy.
Now, I don’t know if this crossing had a reputation as a killer prior to the mid-1990s, but I often wonder that other municipalities could do it if Niles could. BTW the rubber went about the same time the commercial stuff came in, so if anything Niles was right on the traffic trend if not ahead of it. And the community wasn’t yet raking in the big bucks from their part of the sales tax at Wal-Mart, etc.
I have seen rubberized crossings that have taken a great deal of abuse by snowplows, and they’re no fun to travel over once that’s happened. Also, I’ve had the misfortune to meet a rubberized crossing in wet weather when braking for an upcoming traffic light–the rubber surface was far slicker than whatever was beyond it (probably blacktop) at the time.
I think that the steel-edged prefabricated concrete sections, both inside and just outside the rails, are the current grade crossings of choice. They should hold up well, but I have seen some where the concrete near the edges is starting to crumble away. However, I’ve never encountered a really rough one to drive over.
On my 14 mile bike ride, I cross several railroads and the highway crossing (CN) is smooth, while the country crossings are rough and jar the heck out of me.
The CN crossings here in town are a mess and all are being rebuilt.
About how long does a crossing last before needing to be replaced?
ed
(1) The approach grades coming into and out of a crossing should be level/flat within 30 feet of the nearest rail. (used to be +/- 6 inches at 30 feet)…amazing how the highway bubbas can never figure this out, even when AASHTO writes the standards.
(2) If I see concrete poured right up to the field side panels/ planking one more time, I’m gonna go postal on some unwitting highway bubbas. (Listening Oklahoma DOT?)
(3) choice of crossing plank material is the railroad’s call (unless the locals pay)…impact loading from poor approach grades and heavy trucks has a lot to do with the ride quality and longevity of the crossings. (ties under the field side crossing planks tend to squash down on the ends allowing the planks to flop and wabble)
(4) on rubber crossings, no two manufacturer’s assembly instructions are the same and the quality of the material varies OMNI to RedHawk to HiRail etc…The more complex the assembly method and number of parts, the more likely the failure (why Goodyear quit making crossings, the competitor with the prestessed cable units was worse)
In several places where the road bubbas have erected “rough crossing” signs, I wanted to add a second yellow sign below saying “crossing fine, road approach surface poor”
Ed, I know I’m going off topic, but you have to tell me about this bike ride of yours! Just the fact that you have these railroad crossings (and I assume this is local for you) makes me think of interesting possibilities.
Oh yeah the rubber gets slick when wet alright, snow is even worse! Few years back I was driving through downtown Westmont and tried to stop from around 10-15mph because traffic was backing up at the intersection across the tracks and ended up sliding all the way across the x3 track crossing into the back end of another car it was like driving on a sheet of ice and it just started snowing just a dusting on the ground
Now that I think back it was rain that had just turned into snow and it was sticking on the roads so it had to have been cold so its possable that there could have been ice, flange ways on the crossing were probly packed with slush