Wednesday,
December 11, 2002
FRA 10-02
Contact: Warren Flatau
Tel.: (202) 493-6024
Federal
Railroad Administrator Announces Funding For Grade Crossing Hazard Elimination
Programs
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.
"The Bush Administration remains committed to
improving the safety of our nation’s highway-rail grade crossings, including
those in communities along federally-designated high- speed rail corridors,”
said Rutter. “While these grants
provide our state partners with greater resources with which to enhance grade
crossing safety, more work remains. We
look forward to working with all stakeholders to continue the collective
advances in safety benefiting our nation’s railroad employees and the
communities through which they operate.”
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
Rutter added, “A by-product of this grant program is our
ability to incorporate new and innovative strategies for reducing grade crossing
incidents and the deaths and injuries that so often accompany them.
Such advances are typified by the North Carolina Department of
Transportation’s ongoing Sealed Corridor initiative.”(http://www.bytrain.org/safety/sealed.html)
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.
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