Evaluation of parameters influencing delay for the road users at railway level crossings in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Design, construction and maintenance of railway level crossings are responsibilities of Sri Lanka Railways. The funding agency in this regard is the Ministry of Finance where allocations are provided from the annual budget for above targets. The additional time consumption born by the road users at level crossing is a current issue to be addressed at the earliest possible in order to minimize the delay and inconvenience. According to the SLR the reason behind in this issue is the poor maintenance due to inadequacy of budgetary allocations provided by the Central Government. Also the officials of SLR highlighted that they do not have sufficiently equipped laboratories or skilled technical staff for doing research and also the application of advance high tech equipment such as sensors and replaceable surface materials. One of the main reasons behind in this issue is the high capital cost of implementation of said needful. Under this research around 125 locations of level crossings were visited all over the country where the faults and weaknesses influenced for delay was carefully observed. A random sample of 42 numbers of crossings (including good and bad sections) was selected for evaluation. The prominent causes detected were categorized for quantitative analysis. The locations contributed with high gravity on delay and safety such as Yangalmodara, Kolathenna, and Kapuwatta were taken as case studies and compared with the level crossing at Bentota which can be considered as the best out of 125 level crossings observed. Since the comparison was not that easy as the parameters such as number of rail tracks, traffic flows, type of crossings etc. defers from place to place it was decided to compare the delay per vehicle for 100m distance (50m distance from either sides of centre lines of the tracks) with the time taken by an average vehicle to travel the same distance in the particular area. The parameters mostly influenced for delay were cross tabulated. The correlations were checked among the parameters. The gravity of causes was assessed by giving a rating (1-3) at different locations. Furthermore this discussions were made with the responsible officers of Sri Lanka Railways and Road Development Authority. With the help of the information gathered from the two organizations and also with the data collection and the evaluations carried out during the research it was able to forward some improvement proposals/ mitigation measures in order to minimize the delay at level crossings in Sri Lanka. It is suggested that based on rough quantitative and acceptable qualitative analysis given in this dissertation the designers and responsibility bearers of relevant authorities would be able to carry out their designs or construction/ maintenance activities successfully. It was found that the main parameters causing for this delay are visibility, surface defects and poor vertical alignment in approaches and in between tracks due to settlement or in proper designs implemented at level crossings.