Tracks' close proximity to highway raises concerns

Updated: 2011-08-26 07:48

By Wu Yiyao (China Daily)

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SHANGHAI - A high-speed railway remains under construction despite fears that its location near a highway makes it dangerous.

The fears, though, have prompted an investigation into the project by the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission, which by Thursday had yet to release the results of that work, according to the Hangzhou-based Qianjiang Evening News.

The railway gets as close as 5.8 meters away from the Hangzhou-Quzhou highway in Zhuji, a city in Zhejiang province.

Highway safety regulations maintain that highways must be kept at least 30 meters away from other obstacles.

And railway safety regulations stipulate that non-residential structures be kept at least 15 meters away from rails.

The rules exist to prevent crashes on a highway from spilling over onto the tracks and posing dangers to passengers aboard trains.

"A design like this that puts railway tracks so close to the highway is illegal," said a staff member of the Zhuji highway authority, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The staff member also said the highway authority had issued five requests asking for the work on the railway to be suspended. But the project builder, the Shanghai-Kunming railway company in Zhejiang, a subsidiary of the China Railway 17 Bureau Group, pressed forward.

The high-speed railway project is part of a route linking Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, and Changsha, capital of Hunan province, and is planned to be put into operation in 2013, according to the official website of the Shanghai Railway Bureau.

The section of the railway track in Zhuji is 51 kilometers in length. Of the 24 overpass piers that are to be built for it, 10 have been completed in the past nine months.

"It looks funny, as well as dangerous, that the two routes are so close to each other," said Chen Hujun, a driver who often takes the highway.

The project builder said there is nothing odd about the way the tracks were designed.

Yang Xueren, spokesman for the builder, said similar conflicts have arisen between railway and highway authorities throughout the country.

"It's just that other cases are not as serious as this one," Yang was quoted as saying by Qianjiang Evening News

The Shanghai-Kunming railway company said it will investigate the situation and consult technical experts about it.