Journal Frankfurt Nachrichten – Construction work begins on the Nied level crossing
Deutsche Bahn begins to modernize the technology at the level crossing in Oeserstraße in the Nied district of Frankfurt. There was a tragic accident there last year with one dead and two seriously injured.
In addition, it is planned that the DB will adjust the traffic routing at the level crossing so that road traffic is less jammed there. This means that Oeserstraße, which bends to the left and ends in Birminghamstraße, will in future become the priority road. During the construction work, car traffic will be diverted via Waldschulstrasse and Mainzer Landstrasse.
The new security system is expected to go into operation on December 11th. In addition, the railway is dismantling the caretaker’s house and basement and replacing it with a container. The work is planned on a daily basis.
First step of the three-step plan
With the renovation work that is now beginning, DB is completing the first step of the three-stage plan that it presented together with the City of Frankfurt to improve the traffic situation at the level crossing in Nied in October 2020. This stipulates that the entire technology of the level crossing will be renewed by the end of the year and supplemented by a traffic light system as an additional safety measure for road users. This means that the railroad barriers close automatically and the local barrier post dies after a final clearance after verification has been released.
The second step provides for the construction of a pedestrian underpass by 2023/2024. In the last stage, an underpass for road traffic is also to be built, which would then completely replace the level crossing. Deutsche Bahn expects the transition to be finally eliminated “in the second half of the 2020s”.
16-year-old died in an accident at the level crossing
The level crossing, which is located in a difficult-to-see curve and a busy intersection, has been criticized several times and has repeatedly led to dangerous situations in the past. On May 7, 2020, an accident occurred due to a barrier that was previously opened by hand, in which a 16-year-old pedestrian was killed and a driver was seriously injured.
In the run-up to the accident, according to a report by the Federal Agency for Railway Accident Investigation, there should have been a malfunction report in the technical system, which is said to have been caused by “signs of wear and tear”. The barrier could therefore not be opened for around 30 minutes. In addition, the accident report came to the conclusion that the gatekeeper, who is said to have been “responsible for the accident”, should not have been allowed to work for this job because she did not have a “certificate that the training was carried out on the job” have.
The level crossing in Oeserstraße is one of the busiest crossings in Frankfurt with around 250 trains a day. He is also one of the few in all of Germany whose barrier still has to be operated by hand by a gatekeeper. There have been plans to build an underpass there for safety reasons since the 1960s, but these have been postponed again and again. Shortly after the railway accident last year, the citizens’ initiative “The barrier in Nied must go” was founded with more than 1500 members who actively campaigned for the construction of an underpass.