FRA
01-03
Monday, January 13, 2003
Contact: Robert L. Gould
Telephone: (202) 493-6024
Federal Railroad Administration Announces Online Availability of GradeDec.Net
Benefit-Cost Analysis Tool
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today announced
the online availability of GradeDec.Net, an Internet application and database
designed to aid benefit-cost analyses of highway-rail grade crossing
infrastructure investments.
The application, accessible at http://GradeDec.Net,
can be used to evaluate the benefits and costs of rail investment projects,
specifically those involving highway-rail grade crossing improvements (including
grade separation or closure), within a risk analysis framework.
FRA Administrator Allan Rutter said, “I’m pleased that
interested parties may now compare the safety, air quality, and highway user
benefits to the costs of grade crossing investments online.”
He added, “GradeDec.Net provides users with easy online access to key
databases and statistical models, generates useful charts, graphs and reports,
and allows users to save analyses for distribution, reuse, and refinement.”
Federal infrastructure investment policies require, among
other things, analyses of the expected benefits and costs, quantitative and
qualitative, of such investments. GradeDec.Net
is a revised version of GradeDec, originally developed in 1998 in consultation
with several state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning
organizations. State, local and
regional government agencies, and railroads have used both versions
successfully. The GradeDec model
was tested and reviewed at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the
University of California at Berkeley.
The model employs current research findings on the
environment, safety, and traffic network analysis. Users can customize analytical models to reflect regional
conditions, and to obtain dollar values for a full range of benefit categories.
The National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Inventory database and U.S.
Department of Transportation Accident Prediction and Severity Model are
integrated features of GradeDec.Net. The
application allows users to evaluate expected changes in accident risk, travel
time savings, vehicle operating cost savings, and air quality benefits, while
accounting for changes in highway-rail crossing maintenance and capital costs.
Users are able to conduct benefit-cost analyses for individual or multiple crossings at the corridor or regional level. Corridor-level analysis allows users to rank crossing improvements by benefit category and to identify grade crossing investments that may reduce highway traffic congestion. A regional-level analysis allows users to evaluate grade crossings for a geographic area as small as a township, or as large as multiple counties or a state.
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