Waking up in Geelong

It might seem strange, but as the Level Crossing Removal Project separates road and rail across Melbourne’s railway network, a new kind of level crossing is appearing in their place for a specific purpose – road rail access pads for maintenance vehicles.

Road–rail vehicles

Many different kinds of road–rail vehicle exist, ready to assist with every kind of construction or maintenance task.

Trucks to transport materials to work sites.

Some able to drag a ‘train’ of wagons.

Excavators for digging.

Lifting.

Tamping ballast.

Unloading sleepers.

And laying them.

Big tip trucks to deliver ballast.

And small.

Piling rigs to bore foundations.

Cranes to put in the overhead stanchions.

Cherrypickers to reach the overhead wires.

Along with boom lifts.

4WDs refitted for weed spraying.

Testing level crossings.

Using ultrasonic sensors to look for rail flaws.

Trucks to chip trees.

And suck up gunk.

Even tunnels aren’t enough to keep them away.

So how do they get onto the tracks?

Traditionally road rail vehicles would just head to the nearest level crossing, turn 90 degrees to line up with the tracks, and lower their rail wheels.

But level crossing removals mean access points are few and far between.

Sometimes gravel will be dumped across the tracks to provide access to a worksite.

Allowing heavy equipment to access the rail corridor.

But the long term solution is “Road Rail Vehicle Access Pads” – level crossings to nowhere.

Essendon received one after the level crossing removal at Buckley Street.

As did the Sunbury line between Ginifer and St Albans station following the upgrades there.

And the brand new Mernda line extension doesn’t have any level crossings, so needed them too.

With the list of locations growing each time a level crossing is removed.

But there’s one problem

Ballast piled up between the rails can cause another problem – derailments.

Prohibition of Ballast Pad Hi-Rail Access Points

On the 9th January, 2019 an incident occurred where a tamper derailed as it passed through a ballast pad. Due to this incident and combined with the inability to inspect the Track Asset beneath the ballast (which is a requirement of the Track Technical Maintenance Plan), a number of measures require implementation.

Effective immediately:
– The construction of new ballast pads is prohibited across the MTM network;
– A plan for the removal of ALL existing ballast pads across the MTM network will be compiled by Infrastructure;
– All new hi-rail access points must have their construction type and methodology agreed by the Track & Structures Delivery Manager for all locations.

And asphalt between the rails makes inspecting the trackbed impossible.

Due to track conditions below the Curtin Street road-rail vehicle access pad at Ch.16.818km between Ginifer and St. Albans, a restriction on the speed of trains has been applied through the affected location.

In order to return train traffic to line speed, Infrastructure are required to remove the asphalt in situ at the RRV pad in order to perform rectification work.

In accordance with L1-CHE-INS-079, MTM Design Practice Note Road-Rail Vehicle Access Pads, section 6. vii. – Infrastructure will not return this RRV pad to an asphalt construction but instead utilise type-approved removable panels.

As the type-approved removable panels require procurement, there will be a period of time between when the geometry rectification works are completed and the access pad is returned to use for RRV access.

The geometry rectification works are planned for 25/08/2019 and the removable panels will be available for installation in late November.

So existing access pads have had to be upgraded.

Using the same rubber panels used at level crossings.

Network upgrades never end!