Thursday, September 04, 2003 (Washington, DC) Federal Railroad Administrator (FRA) Allan Rutter today announced the award of $5.22 million in grants to 10 states to enhance the safety of public and private highway-grade crossings along federally designated high-speed rail corridors.

“President Bush and Secretary Mineta are highly committed to improving safety at our nation’s highway-rail grade crossings,” said Administrator Rutter. “I’m very pleased that these grants further that goal, as well as the development of high-speed rail corridors in recipient states.”

Under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, Section 1103(c) grant program, public and private highway-rail grade crossings along previously designated corridors are eligible to receive funding for 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.

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. Fiscal Year 2003 allocations are being awarded to 10 states along five federally designated high-speed rail corridors. They are:

Pacific Northwest:
Washington 993,500

Chicago Hub Corridor:
Minnesota 248,375
Wisconsin 447,075
Illinois 198,700

Gulf Coast Corridor:
Louisiana 141,077
Mississippi 1,266,712
Alabama 380,511

Southeast Corridor:
South Carolina 496,750
Virginia 198,700

Empire Corridor:
New York 844,475

Total: $5,215,875

The grants reflect a required across-the-board 0.65 percent rescission. A by-product of the grant program has been the development of new and innovative strategies for reducing grade crossing collisions and casualties. The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s (NCDOT) ongoing Sealed Corridor Initiative typifies such advances. NCDOT developed a Traffic Separation Study technique that the State is now using to identify and close redundant crossings.

Since 1993, funding under the program has resulted in improvements to nearly 330 highway-rail crossings, the closure of 122 highway grade crossings, and aided in the design and construction of 12 grade separation projects.

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) expanded the highway-rail grade crossing hazard elimination program, which began under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). The Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Highway Administration, both agencies of the U.S. Department of Transportation, jointly manage the program.