I saw this meme on Facebook showing a coiled railway overbridge and an alternative plan. I replied that straightening that overbridge will force it to start at the other side of the road, and you need to build a u-turn and there is a valuable building off the frame. Is the coil rational, and why?
source google maps
The distance between the intersection and the rail is 100m, The road would need to rise about 10m to clear the track. This would mean a average grade of 10%. However you also need to account for the vertical curve in the road so the max grade would be quite a bit higher.
The max grade allowed for non-local roads in the US is about 8% (the place in question is in Pakistan). This appears to be a connecting road that replaces a on-grade railway crossing a bit further east.
With this design you also have a lot more span that you can cross under next to the rails for future development.
In 1909, the same thing was done twice on the Canadian Pacific Railway rail line through Kicking Horse Pass in the Rocky Mountains: 
Two circular tunnels (dashed white lines) were dug into the mountains, lengthening the route in order to decrease its steepness.
This is exactly the same situation and solution as in the original question.
