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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hancok" data-source="post: 25775365" data-attributes="member: 119642">The vertical alignmentCritics also say that elevation is a waste of money and going at grade is less costly and a better option. But Dr. De Silva countered this argument.He said: “There are 148 railway level crossings from Maradana to Avissawella; 75 crossings up to Padukka and 56 crossings up to Homagama. At grade level crossings, the delay to the road network would be very high. At Baseline road, a 450-metre vehicle queue is created even now running trains at 20-minute frequency. Just imagine the impact with trains running every seven minutes in the future? In this case, we used simulation software to evaluate the future impact and it found that the queue will be 800 m with current traffic and around one km with future traffic flow.“Similarly the existing road network will be highly congested if not grade separated. Twenty major road crossings up to Malapalla have more than 12,000 vehicles per day crossing the level crossing surveyed in 2017. If increased further it will need either the road or the railway to be elevated.“If flyovers are not included, safety concerns at crossings and the cost to the society and cost of operating the level crossings must be considered separately. The alternate option of going at grade with road flyovers was estimated at $ 200 million extra. This is because a 14.5 m width is required for at grade, while 12 m is needed for elevated viaduct. Therefore, going at grade will require additional acquisition all along the corridor which will in turn create problems like closing down nine km of parallel roads, including highly used roads such as Railway Avenue having access to houses and commercial properties outside the railway reservation.” Dr. De Silva pointed out.Benefits not accounted or quantified.The transport expert said that critics had not considered the other benefits of an elevated line. He pointed out that the space created underneath the elevated viaduct was proposed to be used as bicycle paths and walking paths connected with public spaces.The additional land was proposed to be leased for commercial activities such as kiosks used as additional income generators for the operations on top of ticket revenue. In addition, electrification would require fencing if going at grade. The railway track itself would be a physical barrier separating communities. Extra connectivity was established between the communities in a highly-urbanised area by going elevated, he said.AlignmentAnswering critics who say that the tight curves were not corrected in the elevated section. Dr De Silva stated: “It would have been ideal to straighten the curves, but the study team looked at the best possible return of investment. Straightening the curves would increase the speed to allow only a five-minute travel time saving compared to proposed design which straightens the curves as much as possible with minimum acquisition. The land acquisition cost itself would be over $ 24 million, and the total cost of straightening, even with the reduction of length by 1.7 kms is very high. Doing it for a five minute time gain with all the social impacts due to relocation in a highly-urbanised area was not the best option.“The main reason behind no speed gain is because KV line has a specialty compared to other suburban rail, where the rail stations are located very close to each other. There are 24 stations in a 35 km length between Maradana and Paduka. The distance between the stations vary from 0.6 to 1.9 kms. Therefore, trains cannot achieve maximum speeds even with a straight crow fly line generated.”Freight movement The issue of freight movement has been brought in to slam the new plan. It is said that freight movement is not possible by elevation as loading unloading cannot be done. But Dr. De Silva said that less than 2% of Sri Lanka good transport is done with rail. Freight traffic has actually declined since 2010. 98% of the freight handles by rail is for cement inputs and oil products.He pointed out that there is no current demand for freight movement along the KV corridor, except for parcel delivery. And there is no demand projected for future as well. The short distance fright hauling is anyways more economical by trucks.“There is no need to provide loading unloading provisions at elevated section. If a need arises the facilities can be created. There is no restrictions for</blockquote>

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