With the advent of high-speed rail in five rail corridors in the United States, the problem of safety at grade crossings must urgently be addressed. It is simply not financially feasible to do away with literally thousands of such crossings. Some will be eliminated by construction of overpasses and tunnels. Others will be closed. But the majority will require a method to effectively prevent vehicular traffic from intruding into the path of an oncoming train but with concern for the safety of the motorists. In cooperation with the Illinois Department of Transportation, Road Safety Service Inc. and the Entwistle Corporation are developing a barrier which will provide improved safety at grade grade crossings at three experimental sites on the Chicago - St. Louis rail corridor. The baseline for three barriers is the Dragnet Vehicle Arresting Barrier which is widely used in myriad applications to prevent errant vehicles from intruding into perilous areas with little risk to the vehicle occupants. This paper describes the phased approach adopted to evolve an optimum barrier system through a disciplined engineering approach to include preliminary design, systems engineering and operational analysis, detail design prototype and demonstration systems and operational test and evaluation. (A)
Abstract