Highway - Railroad Crossings Guidelines

Edited by Airton G. Kohls (Source: Highway-Railroad Crossings Handbook – 3rd edition – Federal Railroad Administration/Federal Highway Administration)

 

The third edition of the Highway-Rail Crossing Handbook was released in July 2019. The Handbook is a compendium of recommended safety engineering treatments for at-grade highway-rail crossings which summarizes current noteworthy or best practices and provides a range of options for consideration. It is an information resource to provide a unified reference document on prevalent and best practices as well as adopted standards relative to highway-rail grade crossings. The purpose of the Handbook is not to establish standards, but to provide guidance about how existing standards and recommended practices may be applied in developing safe and effective treatments for crossings. The Handbook is intended for use by practitioners of all levels of knowledge and experience involved with the design and management of highway.rail crossings. This includes: local highway agencies/authorities, municipal planners, traffic engineers, transportation planners, safety analysts, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), State Departments of Transportation (DOT), and allied regulatory commissions (including people responsible for program development, safety management, and data management sections of the applicable State agency), railroad public project managers, public safety coordinators, railroad maintenance officials, and signal designers and maintainers, law enforcement agencies and emergency responders. A free download of the Highway-Rail Crossing Handbook is available at: https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/hsip/xings/com_roaduser/fhwasa18040/fhwasa18040v2.pdf.

Organized in six chapters, the handbook presents detailed information on engineering treatments, treatment selection guidance, project implementation, maintenance, management and operations, and special topics. The following illustrates a few examples of treatments to accommodate vulnerable users at highway railroad crossings:

Pathway Crossing Signing and Markings for Bicyclists and Skaters

Crossings which serve higher-speed users such as bicyclists and skaters should use a combination of treatments including advance warning signs and pavement markings along with a Crossbuck Assembly and optional LOOK (R15-8) sign as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Example of Signing and Markings for a Pathway Crossing (Source: Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, 2009 Edition, Figure 8D-1, Washington, DC, FHWA, 2009.)

Z-crossing Channelization

A “Z-crossing” is designed to turn pedestrians toward approaching trains, forcing them to look in the direction of oncoming rail vehicles. Figure 2 shows a “Z-crossing application in Portland, Oregon. Z-crossing channelization may be used at pathway crossings where pedestrians are likely to run unimpeded across the tracks, such as isolated, midblock, pedestrian only crossings, particularly where there is good stopping sight distance and pedestrian volumes are low and active devices are not required. Standard configuration Z.crossings are not suitable for single- or double-track locations where trains operate in both directions on a regular basis. The angled crossing configuration can be adapted by extending the length of the diagonal zone so users face both directions while traversing the crossing but angled crossings are more difficult for wheelchairs and bicycles to navigate.

Figure 2. Example of a Z-Crossing Application in Portland, Oregon