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Removing a level crossing

To remove a level crossing several years or even decades are required to get from intention to implementation. This period of time is due to the complexity of the surveys, often long legal processes are required, and the need to achieve technical and financial agreement with many different parties, the RFF, the local authorities, citizens…There are many obstacles to be overcome in a project to get rid of a level crossing, and the culmination of the effort is always the result of shared volition and ongoing cooperation between all the partners.

Every year about one hundred level crossings are removed, of which about a dozen are problematic ones (6 in 2009) and around one hundred are improved.

At the start of 2010 RFF listed 110 projects for eliminating problematic level crossings and 27 improvements in progress.

There are four ways of improving a level crossing: by making the road a no through road, by making a detour to an existing crossing, by creating an underpass, or by a bridge.

A) Making a no through road

This solution can only be considered for pedestrian or very light vehicle level crossings.

B) A detour to an existing crossing structure

There are many structures that cross the tracks of the national rail network. A simple solution is to reroute the level crossing road to one of these structures. Very often a road is built along one side or the other of the railway tracks to join up with such a structure a few hundred metres away.

C) Creating a two-tier structure

There are two ways of crossing the railway tracks in a two-tier fashion: either by an overpass (road bridge) or an underpass (rail bridge).

1) Road bridge

This solution has several major limitations related to the required height of the structure, namely over 6m, above the catenary system (the overhead cables that provide electricity for the trains).

2) Rail bridge

This solution is often selected in urban locations and comes in various road forms depending upon whether it needs to take all or part of the traffic (intended only for cars or for all sorts of vehicles).