Rail crossing projects targeted by DOT

The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced a series of railroad at-grade crossing-related construction projects it will fund with money tied to the federal infrastructure law passed in late 2021.

The DOT says the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes the first-ever dedicated grant program to help communities eliminate points where railroad tracks intersect with roads, which have blocked vehicle and pedestrian traffic, led to deadly vehicle-rail collisions and prevented first responders from reaching emergencies.

The early-June announcement from the DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) spells out more than $570 million in funding awarded via the Railroad Crossing Elimination (RCE) grant program.

The more than 400 designated projects will be distributed to 32 different states. According to the DOT, the projects will alleviate a situation that last year saw more than 2,000 highway-rail crossing collisions in the U.S. and more than 30,000 reports of blocked crossings submitted to the FRA’s public complaint portal.

Such projects are likely to entail the tearing up (and potential recycling of) paving materials plus the scrapping of steel rail to make way for changes to elevation or new routes for railroad tracks.

“As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, we’re improving rail crossings in communities across the country to save lives, time and resources for American families,” Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg says.

“With these project selections and the many more that are to come, we will save lives and reshape infrastructure in ways that allow individuals to move through their neighborhoods seamlessly and safely,” FRA Administrator Amit Bose adds.

Along with funding or partial funding for designated projects, FRA says $33.1 million will go toward project development and design activities that will build a pipeline of projects for future funding.

The biggest-ticket project, at more than $41 million, will take place in Pelham, Alabama, where a bridge will be built to eliminate two existing at-grade crossings on a road that currently carries the second highest traffic volume of any east-to-west route in the area, the DOT says.

In Houston, a nearly $40 million grant will go toward building a 9,000-foot sealed corridor; the construction of four underpasses; and the elimination of seven at-grade roadway-rail crossings comprising the West Belt Improvement project.

In Washougal, Washington, another $40 million has been designated to go toward the 32nd Street Underpass project to fund the development, final design, right-of-way acquisition and rail bridge construction that will result in a new rail bridge and underpass and the reconstruction of five intersections along 32nd Street.

Grants of more than $7 million have been awarded to projects in Los Angeles; Broward County, Florida; Hammond, Indiana; Davenport, Iowa; Olathe, Kansas; Monroe, Michigan; and Fostoria, Ohio, among numerous others.

The DOT says in each of the next four years, additional RCE program funding will be made available. “Project selections for other grant programs that will improve freight rail safety and efficiency, strengthen supply chains, and expand the passenger rail network—representing billions of dollars in infrastructure law investments—will be announced in the coming months,” the agency says.

The complete list of Fiscal Year 2022 RCE program awarded projects can be found here.