Creating non-overlapping buffer polygons for intersecting rail pollines (switches & diamonds)

Sriramramaswamy12 — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:05:25 GMT

I'm working with rail centerline polylines that are dissolved by a route/ownership field (SUB_MLN_LMP). I need to generate ROW (right-of-way) buffer polygons such that:

Buffers do not overlap across different SUB_MLN_LMP values
Intersections at switches and diamonds are handled correctly (ownership is respected rather than evenly split)
Each resulting polygon belongs to only one route/owner

Standard approaches (buffer + dissolve, union, Voronoi/Thiessen from vertices or densified points) either produce overlapping buffers or split ownership evenly at intersections, which does not match the operational use case.

Conceptually, the desired output assigns ownership through intersections based on dominance/priority of routes rather than pure distance geometry (see attached images: black/blue lines correspond to red/green polygons).

Has anyone solved a similar rule-based ROW buffer ownership problem in ArcGIS Pro?

Looking for workflow ideas, tools, or modeling approaches (Spatial Analyst available)

Happy to calrify assumptions around switches, diamonds, or ownership rules if needed.

Re: Creating non-overlapping buffer polygons for intersecting rail pollines (switches & diamonds)

Sriramramaswamy12 — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 15:26:18 GMT

Attached is the Coastal Ranges Routes layer I am working with

topic Re: Creating non-overlapping buffer polygons for intersecting rail pollines (switches & diamonds) in Implementing ArcGIS Questions

Creating non-overlapping buffer polygons for intersecting rail pollines (switches & diamonds)

Re: Creating non-overlapping buffer polygons for intersecting rail pollines (switches & diamonds)