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October 14, 1999

Memorandum To: James A. Smailes, P.E., Federal Railroad Administration

From: Mitch Eaton, Highway/Railroad Traffic Separation Engineer

Subject:Quarterly Report # 13, North Carolina Sealed Corridor
Project: TIP Project No. P-3419; Next Generation High Speed Rail Grant

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has completed the following tasks as part of the Sealed Corridor project since our last report to you in July 1999:

  • The plans for the long gate arm locations continue to be submitted to Norfolk Southern. On September 8, 1999, the Rail Division authorized for construction four locations and an additional four were authorized for construction on October 5, 1999. The latter locations were designed to include constant warning time devices as well as train detection circuit lengthening (as included in the Rail IMPACT project).
  • The Rail Division has authorized for construction the Hickory Ridge Rd. location to receive constant warning time devices as well as train detection circuit lengthening. The location has received median barrier treatment, and was previously identified for revision of the train detection circuits to accommodate current and proposed higher rail traffic speeds. Three other median barrier locations are under design by the railroad to receive similar treatments (as included in the Rail IMPACT project).
  • The Rail Division has changed the design for the Scientific Street location near High Point, Guilford County from median barriers to longer gate arms. The location was originally identified to receive portable median barrier treatment, but Highway Division 7 was reluctant to accept the installation of the median barriers and did not want the maintenance responsibility. Even after the Rail Division offered to accept responsibility for their maintenance and make any necessary roadway improvements to better accommodate median barriers, the Highway Division 7 did not prefer median barriers at this site. In the interest of progressing treatment at this location, the Rail Division decided to change the proposed treatment to longer gate arms.
  • The Rail Division has received production models of a new median barrier device manufactured by Recycled Technology, Inc. of Tualatin, Oregon. The company hopes to be competitive in the market with Qwick Kurb by offering a product that costs less and offers the same dependability. The median is composed of recycled rubber that is molded in four-foot sections and is painted yellow. The median is four inches in height and ten inches in width. The product utilizes yellow flexible tubular markers as delineators that sit in a metal cup molded into the median. The delineators are fastened in place with an aluminum dowel that is tapped through the rubber median, metal cup, and delineator through a pre-drilled hole. The Rail Division hopes to test the durability and maintenance of the product at several locations later this year.
  • The engineering for the four-quadrant gate systems at the E. 36th Street location in Charlotte is approved, and the Municipal Agreement for the construction of the signals has been returned to NCDOT from the City of Charlotte. Authorization for construction at this site will be given shortly. The four-quadrant gates at Hickory Grove Road near Charlotte were cut-in on August 5, 1999. Seven locations are currently authorized for construction, and the Hoskins Street crossing in High Point and Universal Street crossing in Kannapolis are being reevaluated to possibly receive four-quadrant gate treatment.
  • The design for the Ragsdale-Dillon Rd. four-quadrant gate treatment with the short concrete islands for both approaches has been reviewed by the Highway Division 7 Engineer’s office. Highway Division 7 has expressed concern over using the short concrete islands at the crossing and would like to investigate a configuration to the placement of the gates that would eliminate the concrete islands. Because of the severe skew of the roadway with the railroad tracks at this location, the Rail Division believes that the inclusion of the short concrete islands will simplify the design of the four-quadrant gates and contribute to the overall effectiveness of the crossing treatment. The Rail Division met with representatives of Highway Division 7 at the site on October 8, 1999 to further discuss the proposed treatment of this crossing location. After review of alternative plans to the design that did not include the medians, Highway Division 7 agreed to accept the design with the concrete medians and assist in their construction.
  • As part of project R-2533A that will widen NC Highway 49 east of Charlotte, the Rail Division is working with the Division of Highway’s Roadway Design Unit to design and construct concrete monolithic barrier islands at the Shamrock Road and Pharr Mill Road crossing locations. To eliminate their skewed intersection, Shamrock Road will be realigned with NC 49 and a new crossing will be constructed to achieve this. The Rail Division requested that the new crossing be designed with the concrete medians. The roadway for Pharr Mill Road will be widened on the west side of the crossing, and the Rail Division has requested that the Roadway Design Unit investigate the feasibility of putting a concrete island for this approach.
  • The Rail Division conducted site evaluations with Mel McNichols of CSX Transportation for the seven crossings on the Phase III of Sealed Corridor between Fetner Junction in Cary and Boylan Street in Raleigh. The purpose of the investigations were to show the existing crossing conditions and discuss the Rail Division’s proposed treatments for the various crossings, as well as receive comments from Mr. McNichols on additional improvements to explore for each crossing. The Rail Division will start field investigations for designing the proposed treatments later this year.
  • As part of the recommendations from the South End Traffic Separation study, the Meisenheimer Drive crossing and Elm Street crossing in China Grove are scheduled to be closed the week of November 8, 1999. Winecoff Avenue in Concord will be closed this spring upon the completion of a new modular crossing surface and four-quadrant gates at McGill Avenue. The four-quadrant gates for McGill Avenue are scheduled to be constructed in November 1999.
  • The Henderson Street crossing in Salisbury is being considered for longer gate arm treatment. The crossing is currently the test location for the CLEAR Video Ticketing program. Upon discussion with Norfolk Southern on the difficulty of relinquishing maintenance and responsibility of the system to the City, it was decided that it would be more feasible to treat the crossing location with longer gate arms than to maintain the CLEAR camera system. Because of the number of tracks due to diverging mainlines at this crossing, the mainline from Greensboro to Charlotte will receive longer gates, as well as the mainline to Asheville. A storage track lies between the two mainlines, but because it is seldom used and requires flagman protection when used, it will not be treated with crossing gates.

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