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Business View Australia - March-April 2016 15
INFRASTRUCTURE
Troy Junction, but until October 2015
higher productivity heavy vehicle
combinations including B Doubles
and Road Trains were not permitted
to use this access.
Boothenba Road comes off the
Newell Highway, the main Melbourne
to Brisbane highway running south
to north through Western NSW, but
the highway runs directly beside the
railway line. Both were so close to
each other (15 metres or so) that a
road train was never permitted to turn
there because if a train happened to
be coming it would need to stop with
its trailer still hanging out across the
highway. Conversely if a road train was
trying to turn onto the highway and had
to stop for traffic at the intersection,
the trailer was left hanging over the
railway line and could have been a
collision hazard for trains. McLeod
said the solution was quite simple.
“Rather than having the railway line
running parallel to the highway, we
put a curve into the railway line at the
point where the level crossing was
and moved the crossing 120 metres
further from the highway so that
now there is a 120+m gap between
where the railway crossing is and the
Newell highway is. Now if three road
trains happened to be following one
another, they will be able to turn off
the highway and still have room to
be stacked until a train passes by