Funds Released For Railroad Grade Crossing Hazard Elimination
Federal Railroad Administrator (FRA) Allan Rutter today announced the award of approximately $5.4 million in grants to 10 states to enhance the safety of public and private highway-grade crossings along federally-designated high-speed rail corridors.
Under the terms of the grants, all public and private highway-rail grade crossings along designated corridors are eligible for the funding of a number of hazard elimination activities including: crossing closure, crossing consolidation or grade separation; installation or upgrade of automated warning devices to include bells, flashing lights and/or gates; improvements to track circuitry, crossing surface upgrades, crossing sight distances or illumination; installation of advanced train control or traffic control systems; and other related project development and engineering activities.
Fiscal Year 2002 allocations are being awarded to 10 states along five designated high-speed rail corridors. They are:
California Corridor:
California $200,000
Chicago Hub Corridor:
Minnesota 250,000
Ohio 163,000
Wisconsin 250,000
Gulf Coast Corridor:
Louisiana 200,000
Mississippi 1,417,000
Alabama 383,000
Southeast Corridor:
South Carolina 800,000
Virginia 250,000
Empire Corridor:
New York 1,500,000
Total: $5,413,000
The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) expanded the highway-rail grade crossing hazard elimination program, which began with the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA).
The Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), both agencies of the U.S. Department of Transportation, jointly manage the program.
Since 1993, funding under this program has resulted in improvements to nearly 300 highway-rail crossings, the closure of 116 highway grade crossings, and aided in the design and construction of five grade separation projects.
The federal share of costs for improvements funded under the hazard elimination program may be up to 100 percent of the total engineering and construction costs. The funds will be used with other federal and state grade crossing funding to safely accelerate the implementation of high-speed rail corridors.
