DETAILED SAFETY ASSESSMENTS

 

A detailed safety assessment is a systematic process to evaluate the safety of a road/railway grade crossing. It is a proactive strategy to:

·         Reduce crash risk within the grade crossing environment.

·         Minimize the frequency and severity of preventable crashes by ensuring that all measures to eliminate or reduce the identified safety problems are fully considered, evaluated and documented.

·         Consider the safety of all grade crossing users including trains, pedestrians, and motorized and non-motorized vehicles.

·         Verify compliance to the safety technical standards referred to in the Railway Safety Act/Grade Crossing Regulations and contained in the RTD10 “Road/Railway Grade Crossing Technical Standards and Inspection, Testing and Maintenance Requirements”¹ document.

 

Jock Valley Engineering Ltd. has conducted Detailed Safety Assessments (DSA’s) both as part of the detailed design process and as input to environmental assessments. Several of these DSA’s were conducted on complex crossings of arterial roads.  As a result of the DSA’s, the municipality was able to construct crossings with a high level of safety and at the same time achieve a significant cost saving.

 

 

 

¹ Standards developed by Transport Canada for Canadian crossings and included by reference in the proposed Grade Crossings Regulations.