LEVEL CROSSINGS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 101, 30 April 1937, Page 8

LEVEL CROSSINGS

ELIMINATION PLAN

WORK PROCEEDING

PROGRESS TO DATE

An outline of the , progress made, in connection with the Government's programme for the elimination of dangerous level crossingsl..in' the Dominion was given: by the, Minister of Transport (the Hon. E. Semple) in an interview, with a "Post" reporter.

Mr. Semple said that throughout the world the appalling number of road accidents was giving great concern and most Governments were providing safety measures as rapidly as possible. In New Zealand the problem was just as; acute as elsewhere. Motor traffic was increasing by leaps and bounds. Already there were over 250,000 motor vehicles in the country, and if the pre-;. sent rate of increase was maintained it would not take many years before the 400,000 mark was reached. ..... Level crossing accidents were almost invariably accompanied by fatal results to the passengers of. the road vehicle,' but with the introduction •of rail-cars the dire effects. of a collision might quite conceivably be, more seri-' ous, because the rail-cars , would :be much, more vulnerable than the heavy locomotives. . : -. ' ■■.'■■. Mr. Semple said that altogether there were atjout 2500 railway level crossings in New Zealand, of which 530 were on main highways. •As a begin-, ning it had been, decided to eliminate" 250 of those main-highway crossings. SOLVING THE PROBLEM. "On the face of it," ~he said, , "it might appear that to deal with •■ only 10 per cent, .of the crossings was not tackling the position seriously, but when it is mentioned that 60 per cent, of the traffic using our highways and rural roads passes over one : or other of these 250 lever crossings: each day it can be said that we are going a long way to solve the problem. When these crossings, have been eliminated the. Government might protect the others by one of the innumerable devices that have been suggested. In this connection the greatest care is necessary to see that any form of barrier or visible or audible signal does not produce a danger as great as the one it seeks to remove. Allowance has apparently to be made for the^ preoccupation of drivers and the 'merely mechanical effort required to drive the modern car." . -

A study of accident statistics in America showed that 30 per cent, of level-crossing accidents were due to cars crashing into the sides.of standing or moving trains. Fifty per cent, of' the crossings at which accidents occurred were protected by some form of visible or" audible signal. A further analysis showed that at 50 per cent, of the: crossings visibility: was excellent in all, quadrants.

v The' question that confronted his Department, therefore,- was to make a study of each of the 530 level crossings on the main highway system in order to select the most important. The difficulty, of course, was to compare a crossing in, say, Auckland: with one in Otago. Finally, an: arbitrary factor was obtained by multiplying the rail traffic by the road traffic multiplied again by 1, 2, 3, or 4 according to whether the visibility at the crossing was described as good, fair, poor, or bad. These computations were then compared with and, in .the"main, confirmed by the limited statistical information available.' .A': fu/rther 'study called for uniformity to see: that" there would not be an isolated level crossing on a length of highway that was otherwise unobstructed.

"When the final selection had been made," continued the Minister, "we had to decide the material with which the bridges were to be built .and details with regard to curvature and grades of approaches and sight distances. Reinforced concrete bridges have been adoptedp<,and except in special circumstances the minimum curve is ten chains radius with 500 ft vertical sight distances. The sight distance, in the i main, fixes the vertical curve and the approach grades. In all cases the vertical curve is being built into the bridge or into the formation in the case of subways. In quite a number of instances there are two level-crossings in close proximity which are being eliminated by a deviation, keeping the highway wholly on one side of the railway. : "At first it was thought that.if a few crossings were designed it would only be a matter of adapting one or two, sets of plans to suit many other crossings. It was soon found, however,,that owing to the varying angles of skew, topographical features, approach, grades, and the location of buildings m the vicinity, almost every crossing had some feature that called for special treatment in design." :,. PROGRESS SO FAR. Continuing, the Minister said that the progress to date might be summarised as follows:—Wqrk completed, 9 crossings; contracts let and work in hand, 59 crossings; tenders called, 2 crossings; proposals ready for tenders, 10 crossings; in course, of preparation, 68 crossings; surveys and foundation investigations in hand, 45 crossings; total, 193 crossings. The method adopted for the elimination of these was: By overbridge, 126; by highway deviation, 50; by subways, 17. , ' . ■

The position of the eliminations proposed for the Wellington district is as follows:—Ohau, design plan in hand; Manakau, design plan completed; Otaki, overbridge, bridge and approaches in progress; Waikanae South, subway, design plan in hand; Paraparaumu, overbridge, tenders, called; Pbrirua, overbridge, work commenced; Feilding, overbridge, design plan completed; Bunnythorpe (2), deviation, scheme plan in hand; Ashhurst, design plan completed; Longbum. overbridge, scheme plan completed; Queen Street, Levin, scheme plan in hand; Eketahuna N., subway, design plan in hand; Opaki, overbridge, design plan completed; Fitzherbert Street, Featherston, subway,1 scheme plan in hand; Revans Street, Featherston, subway, scheme | plan in hand; Bell Street, scheme plan in. hand; .Mauriceville, overbridge, ,de|sign plan in hand; Chester Road, Carterton, overbridge, design plan in hand. This progress must*be regarded as highly satisfactory considering the | high pressure at which the officers [ under his control were working, said the Minister in conclusion.