N.C. to Test Grade Crossing Barriers
Because truckers and car drivers persist in ignoring grade crossing signals and barriers with disastrous consequences, a test project in North Carolina will attempt to seal vehicles from the railroad tracks.
The state Department of Transportation is in the process of installing median barriers that prevent drivers from crossing into the opposite lane to avoid gates. Also going up are four-quadrant gates that use two barriers on each side of a crossing to completely block the roadway.
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The $8.58 million Sealed Corridor Project began in 1998 along a corridor — favored for a proposed high-speed rail line — that runs from Raleigh to Greensboro to Charlotte. The tracks, which handle a high volume of Norfolk Southern freight and six daily passenger trains, have had 125 incidents over the past 12 years.
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Other ideas being tested include longer gate arms, better signs and pavement markings, and video cameras.
