Cassandra Sias
UTRGV Civil Engineering student Cassandra Lozano had the opportunity to complete her UTCRS REU experience at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Ms. Lozano was deeply interested in geometric and highway design. For this reason, her work involved evaluating highway-railway grade crossings (HRGCs) in terms of sight distance in the presence of a horizontal curve approaching the HRGC. Ms. Lozano evaluated the geometric design at four problematic sites in the state of Nebraska, utilizing simple surveying methods and data acquisition systems. Using these tools and in collaboration with Ms. Ana Pruneda, she was able to calculate the appropriate stopping sight distance, which would allow drivers at each of the locations to see objects on the roadway (in this case the HRGC) and stop safely before a possible collision. Ms. Lozano obtained these sight distances in terms of the posted speed limit and compared them with the actual average speed she measured. Her work highlighted the need to reduce the dangers at each of these HRGC sites caused by the presence of the curves, the drivers’ behavior, and the existence of other visual obstacles such as the abundant corn fields.