A Comprehensive Report on the Level Crossing Removal Project

This report provides an executive summary and detailed analysis of the Level Crossing Removal Project in Melbourne. It begins with an introduction and defines level crossings, highlighting their impact on traffic management. The report then delves into the project's conceptual design, including the preliminary, detailed, and final design phases, as well as the involvement of various stakeholders. It examines specific completed and ongoing projects, such as the Murrumbeena and Noble Park stations, detailing design improvements and community feedback integration. The report also discusses the employment opportunities generated by the project and the overall benefits, such as reduced traffic congestion and improved infrastructure. The conclusion summarizes the project's positive impacts on the community and the Victorian industry, emphasizing the importance of the Level Crossing Removal Project for future development. The report includes references to supporting documents and research.

Level Crossing Removal Project
Level crossing removal project
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Level Crossing Removal Project
Executive summary
This report has been presented over the level crossing removal project. In this report,
many aspects related to level crossing have been studied to reach over a conclusion. Level
crossing is an interaction among the railway lines and cross path. In this report, firstly
introduction has been given about the report, further, definition of level crossing has been
depicted, conceptual design and conceptual design of level crossing has been given and at the
end, conclusion has been given.
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Level Crossing Removal Project
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Definition:....................................................................................................................................................4
Conceptual Design:......................................................................................................................................4
Conceptual design of level crossing removal project..................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
References:..............................................................................................................................................9
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Level Crossing Removal Project
Introduction:
This report has been presented over the level crossing removal project. In this report,
many aspects related to level crossing have been studied to reach over a conclusion. Level
crossing is an interaction among the railway lines and cross path. Level crossing is a term which
is used to maintain the traffic level that occurred as the railway networks of Melbourne included
several railway lines crossing through the same levels because of the flat topography of the city.
For managing the level of traffic, Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA) has been invented
by Melbourne’s government in May 2015. Many reports have been analyzed to conduct this
research.
Definition:
Level Crossing refers to an interaction that occurs at the same level between the railway
lines and the path or road. Lines crossing these paths above or below it are not counted in level
crossing. The Government of Victoria took an initiative in the year 2015 by starting a project
named Level Crossing Removal Project in order to control the increasing levels of traffic that
occurred as the railway networks of Melbourne included several railway lines crossing through
the same levels because of the flat topography of the city. The Level Crossing Removal
Authority (LXRA) was formed under the jurisdiction of Melbourne’s government in May 2015.
The government approved a $6 billion budget bill annually in the 2015-2016 sessions for the
removal of 50 crossings by the year 2022. About $2.4 Billion Budget was committed to remove
about 20 crossings till 2018 and the rest 30 by 2022.
The idea of such project was planned much before the 21st century. In 1954 a committee
was established by the state government whose agenda was to reduce or abolish the level
crossings in Elsternwick, Clifton Hill, Moorabbin, Foots cray and Newport. In 2014, VicRoads
submitted a report which contained the information of the Victoria’s most dangerous level
crossings and handed that report to the state government. The government prioritized the
removal of top 50 crossings with the help of grade separation projects. Further, a commitment
was made stating the constructions of several new stations in the election manifesto of 2014.
This led to the formation of Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA) in the year 2015, whose
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prime agenda was to support and coordinate all the issues related to this long term project like
construction, planning and contracting. According to reports the state government provided a
fund of $9.7 billion for the infrastructure of the remaining 30 level crossing that needs to be
removed in September 2016 (Capuana and Bathie, 2017)
Conceptual Design:
Out of the 50 Level Crossings mentioned by the VicRoads in the reports - Mountain
Highway, Blackburn Road, Scoresby Road, Centre Road, Heatherdale Road, McKinnon Road,
Burke Road, North Road, Main Road, Furlong Road projects have been completed while
projects like Thompsons Road, Abbotts Road, Grange Road, Lower Plenty, Road Koornang,
Road Centre Road, Heatherton Road, Corrigan Road, Murrumbeena Road, Poath Road and
Hallam Road are under construction. Rest of the projects is either in their early planning phase or
in tendering process.
The proposed designs were released by the Victorian Government in February 2016 that
included the elevated rail solutions. The projects like Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing
Removal Project with sucha great size and complexity involves greater amount of considerable
and significant design work in order to reach at the finished product. One needs to take care of
several factors along with the reviews of the community and their feedback while working and
planning towards the final design (Ford and Heneker, 2007). The Caulfield to Dandenong Level
Crossing Removal Project was divided into a package of individual 160 designs. All these
packages were prioritized and passed progressively to the construction team for completion.
Staging the design of any major infrastructure project in this way will lead us to start and finish a
project sooner.
Conceptual design of level crossing removal project:
The designing of the projects under the Level Crossing Removal Project needs to go
through three formal processes or steps before it can be commenced to construction. These three
steps include preliminary design, detailed design and final design. At each stage, these designing
packages are further improvised, refined and developed in accordance with the development of
other packages and according to the external stakeholder’s feedbacks. Thus, before the
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Level Crossing Removal Project
construction process is issued the project goes through three different layers of designing
namely: preliminary design, detailed design and final design (Seiseetal, 2012)
In addition to the reviews and feedbacks generated from the local community these
design packages are been revised by 28 different organizations that includes: the Victoria Police,
Melbourne Water Authority, VicTrack, The Bicycle Network, The Victorian Government
Architect office, Public Transport Victoria (PTV) and Metro Trains Melbourne (MTM) and the
local councils that includes City of Kingston, City of Monash, City of Glen Eira, and City of
Greater Dandenong. A Community Open Space Expert Pane has also been established that
reviews and provides feedback on the stations initial design package and open space within the
project. 300 designers along with hundreds of engineers are hired to create and design more than
20,000 technical drawings to describe the details of these design packages.
Murrumbeena Station was amongst the first project that was implemented by the Level
Crossing Removal Authority. Murrumbeena Station is rebuilding as an elevated railway station
at its current location. The member for Oakleigh announced several improvements in the design
of the old Murrumbeena Station according to the feedbacks of the local community and different
technical experts. The improvements incorporated within the station included stairs , escalators
along with lifts to improve the pedestrian flow and enhance the accessibility , two points to
access the station, provision of hearing loops on the platforms and in the waiting rooms, new
displays to show public information, facilities like baby change for the customers during the
operating hours of the station, special parking along with different drop-off zones and bicycle
hoops and parking cages are located in short distance from the station entrances.The changes and
improvement also included the feedbacks from the local crowd as the height of the station
canopy was reduced by 1.8 meters, public toilet facilities and security facilities were also
improved, additional second entry/exit point to increase the accessibility was included while
incorporating the changes the historically valued architectural elements and structures were kept
in the new station – such as the truss and the steel canopies are still stored in the station.
(Woodcock and Martin, 2016)
The final design for the Noble Park Station was released on 16 December 2016. The
station was rebuilding into an elevated railway station and has been located closer to the
Heatherton Road in order to link it with the Ross Reserve and the Douglas Street activity centre.
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Level Crossing Removal Project
The final design incorporates stairs lifts and escalators I order to improve accessibility, CCTV
camera for better surveillance facility of a Protective Services Officer (PSO), new taxi ranks and
bus bays for the users (Lill and Kane, 2012). A new road has been established Ian Street and
Leonard Avenue to provide better north-south connections for the cyclist, pedestrians and other
road users and a common path has also been developed between Noble Park and EastLink trail
for cyclist and pedestrians.(Lill and Kane, 2012). Moreover, these Level Crossing Removal
Projects would also create employment for the society and the country according to a basis.
These projects would create about 4500 jobs in construction field and would play a important
role in the growth of Victorian Industry along with the assistance of Future Training programs.
The scenario is same for most of the level crossing stations, all the design packages for
these stations includes common changes like better security facility, lifts, escalators and stairs for
better accessibility, CCTV camera for better surveillance, better parking and public toilet
facilities. All these point are common as these are the basic requirements of any community.
(Starčević, Barić andPilko, 2016)
Recently in January 2017, the state government revealed the finalized design for the
elevated rail roads that incorporates noise reduction around the surrounding area and throughout
the rail corridor, improved and enhanced local air quality in comparison to current rail operations
that generate pollutants, barrier support across the rail path to protect the community against rail
derailment and noise reduction that is generated from the train wheels, provision of independent
dual elevated tracks so that proper sunlight and rain can be available for trees and other
community facilities underneath. It also incorporates use of slim line piers in order to minimize
the impacts of overshadowing and visual amenity (Woodcock and Stone, 2015,)
The initiative taken by the Government of Victoria in the form of Level Crossing
Removal project will help in the removal of all the 50 level crossing around the Melbourne along
with providing important and significant improvements to the infrastructure of the city. As this
project provides easing and reducing the heavy road traffic during peak hours and providing
better train facilities to the public with faster and safer services and revitalizing the community
parks, there transport lines and connection and between the local communities with the newly
designed stations (Ford and Heneker, 2007). Moreover, these Level Crossing Removal Projects
will also generate employment for the people of the country as according to a source these
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Level Crossing Removal Project
projects will create about 4500 jobs in construction field and will play a significant role in the
growth of Victorian Industry with the help of Future Training programs. The Screening
performed on these elevated purpose will have serve multiple purpose like, noise reduction, and
security to the people who abut her rail corridors, enhance the overall looks of the rail lines.Thus,
the Level Crossing Removal project will help in the overall growth and development of the
country (Woodcock and Stone, 2016)
Conclusion:
Thus through this report, it could be concluded that this project provides easing and
reducing the heavy road traffic during peak hours and providing better train facilities to the
public with faster and safer services and revitalizing the community parks, there transport lines
and connection and between the local communities with the newly designed stations. Level
Crossing Removal Projects will also generate employment for the people of the country as
according to a source these projects will create about 4500 jobs in construction field and will
play a significant role in the growth of Victorian Industry with the help of Future Training
programs. Thus, the Level Crossing Removal project will help in the overall growth and
development of the country.
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Level Crossing Removal Project
References:
Capuana, J. and Bathie, I., 2017, April. VicRoads project integration with the Level Crossing
Removal Authority (LXRA) structures. In Austroads Bridge Conference, 10th, 2017, Melbourne,
Victoria, Australia.
Ford, G. and Heneker, D., 2007, October.The Australian level crossing assessment model.
In International rail safety conference, Perth (pp. 24-27).
Lill, C. and Kane, T., 2012, September. A Case Study for Engagement with Passionate Groups:
Rail Crossings on the Caulfield to Dandenong Railway Line. In Australasian Transport
Research Forum (ATRF), 35th, 2012, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Merz, J.T.S.K., Prioritising Road-Rail Level Crossings for Grade Separation Using a Multi-
Criteria Approach.
Seise, A., Peltola, H., Leden, L. and Virkkunen, M., 2012. Safety evaluations of level
crossing.Tarva LC. Research reports of the Finnish Transport Agency, (38), pp.online-online.
Starčević, M., Barić, D. and Pilko, H., 2016, January. Safety at Level Crossings: Comparative
Analysis. In 4th International Conference on Road and Rail Infrastructure-CETRA.
Woodcock, I. and Martin, S., 2016, November. Of skyrails and skytrains: elevated rail in the
Australasian urban transport environment. In Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF),
38th, 2016, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Woodcock, I. and Stone, J., 2015, September.Grade separations and improving intermodal
transfer at railway stations in Melbourne.In Proceedings of the 37th Australasian Transport
Research Forum. Sydney: ATRF. ATRF2015_Resubmission_143. pdf.
Woodcock, I. and Stone, J., 2016. The benefits of level crossing removals: lessons from
Melbourne's historical experience.
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