FRA awards $25 million in safety grants

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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FRA Administrator Feinberg discusses the $5.15 million in safety grants that will benefit Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road.
FRA

Safety at crossings, stations and tracks in 14 states and the District of Columbia will be enhanced thanks to $25 million in grants awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

 

FRA awarded funds to 23 projects. However, it received 40 eligible applications requesting $67.5 million, nearly three times the $25 million that congress provided in the 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act that funds the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Railroad Safety Infrastructure Improvement Grants fund safety improvements to railroad infrastructure, including the acquisition, improvement or rehabilitation of intermodal facilities; improvements to track, bridges, rail yards and tunnels; upgrades to railroad crossings and rail/road grade separations.

“A safe railroad network requires continuous investment and upgrades,” said FRA Administrator Sarah Feinberg. “These grants will improve safety at hundreds of railroad crossings and make important safety upgrades at stations across the country. This is an investment that is desperately needed – and I urge state DOTs to join the FRA in investing more in improving safety at crossings.”

Highlights of this round of FRA’s safety grants include:

  • Crossing improvements: $5.15 million to New York State Department of Transportation. This includes $1.34 million to add highway traffic signal preemption to seven grade crossings on Metro-North’s Harlem and Port Jervis Lines in New York to activate the traffic signals at the intersections and allow queued traffic to exit onto the highway prior to the activation of the railroad grade crossing warning systems; $1.90 million to fund installing upgrades to three grade crossings to mitigate hazardous conditions between highway and rail traffic on a Metro-North grade crossing in North White Plains and two public crossings on Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in Deer Park and Oceanside, N.Y. The grants also included $1.91 million to install CCTV cameras to record grade-crossing movements at 43 identified grade crossings within Metro‐North territory in New York to investigate specific incidents and analyze crossing/traffic operations for targeted modifications to improve safety. Metro‐North Railroad and LIRR will work separately as subsidiaries of the Metropolitan Transit Authority on this project.
  • Crossing improvements: $1.06 million to California’s Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board to install new safety measures at 10 grade crossings, where more than 12,000 vehicles traverse each day. The measures include medians, traffic signal preemption, fences, gates, curbs, lighting and signs along the commuter rail line in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties.
  • Rail overpass: $3.56 million to the city of Grandview, Mo., to construct a dual-track overpass for Kansas City Southern that will increase pedestrian and motor vehicle safety measures along the interstate running underneath it, as well as improve rail safety and efficiency. After the existing single-track railroad crossing is replaced with the new double-track crossing, the city will widen Blue Ridge Boulevard to four lanes and add sidewalks under the railroad to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety.
  • Station: $2.69 million to the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District to add two platform access points at the East Chicago Train Station in East Chicago, Ind., to distribute passengers along the full length of the train to reduce congestion and improve egress operations. The project will also enhance safety and operational efficiencies, decrease passenger delays and reduce the probability of derailments through track geometric improvements and reconstructing turnouts to increase train approach speeds from 10 mph to 40 mph.
  • Station: $2.35 million Amtrak to provide a new emergency egress stairway and fire suppression system in the North Hangar and Clayton Concourse, which serve trains moving north and south out of Washington Union Station.
  • Station: $1.61 million to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to construct a new pedestrian underpass and two new rail bridges at SEPTA’s Lawndale Station in Philadelphia, thereby enabling passengers to access the platform without crossing the tracks at grade. The project will also include other improvements, such as a new high-level platform, new signage and fencing, new catenary and ADA-related improvements.
  • Track improvements: $2.37 million to Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. to rehabilitate 12 miles of century-old rail to improve track conditions substantially with new continuous welded rail and ties along Providence and Worcester Railroad Company’s Gardner Branch rail line in central Massachusetts.

Additional grants of under $1 million were awarded to the Indiana Rail Road Co., Indiana Department of Transportation, Maryland Department of Transportation, city of Buffalo, Minn., St. Louis and Lake Counties Regional Railroad Authority, Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern Railroad and South Carolina Department of Commerce, Division of Public Railways for crossing improvements.

The Finger Lakes Railway will be able to perform upgrades to its Auburn Yard through a $500,000 grant; the village of Cary, Ill., and Dallas Area Rapid Transit also received grants for under $1 million for station upgrades.

The city of Shelby, Mont., will perform station and crossing work with its under $1 million grant and the San Luis Central Railroad in Illinois and Ohio Rail Development Commission will both perform track upgrades from their under $1 million grants.

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