GRADE CROSSINGS, Elimination of.
Separation of the grade of a railroad de voted to engine and car traffic from the grade of a street or highway for pedestrian and vehicular traffic has long been a public problem. After 1908, when in that year 832 persons were killed and 1,755 injured at grade crossings, the problem received increased attention. Besides accidents and the vexatious interference with street traffic, the aggregate amount of time lost at grade crossings by pedestrians, vehicles, automobiles and street cars was enormous. Elimination of grade crossings is effected by; (1) elevation or depression of the street with no change in the grade of the railroad; (2) partial elevation or depression of the railroad combined with the partial depression or eleva tion of the street; (3) complete elevation or depression of the railroad with no change in the grade of the street. Of these three methods the best is complete elevation or de pression of the railroad with a minimum change in the grade of the street. While ensuring a perfect roadbed for railroad operation, with a minimum of interference with the streets, the cost of warning signs, bells and signals, the maintenance of gates and the employment of flagmen is also eliminated, and the railroad is relieved of a large expense due to personal in jury claims. The chief advantage to the rail
road is increased speed and freedom of opera tion. By a law passed in 1889 in Connecticut, each road is practically required to eliminate at its own expense one grade crossing each yedr, for every 60 miles of road owned or operated. In Chicago where extensive grade separation operations were necessary, the railroad was re quired to bear the entire cost of track elevation including the cost of bridges and the reconstruc tion of the streets; the city paid only the property damages, which in most cases were small. In Massachusetts, the railroad pays 65 per cent of the cost, the city not more than 10 per cent, the street railway company using the crossing, not exceeding 15 per cent, and the State the remainder. Unless a street railway is in volved, the State's proportion is 25 per cent. State aid laws also exist in Vermont and New York. Consult Bassett, E. M., 'Grade Crossings) (in New York Public Service Commission, Third Annual Report 1909); Whitten, R. A., 'Methods of Railway and Street Grade Separa tion in Cities) (in Engineering and Contracting Vol. X XXVI, pp. 442-445, 1911).