The Commission's Rail Crossings Engineering Section administers three funding programs for reducing hazards at highway-rail crossings:
Section 130
The Section 130 Grade Crossing Improvement Program provides funds to local governments (cities and counties) and railroads to eliminate hazards at existing at-grade public highway-rail crossings
Maintenance Fund
The Warning Device Maintenance Fund Program provides funds to railroads to pay for the local government's share of the costs of maintaining highway-rail crossing automatic warning devices.
Grade Separation Fund
Fiscal Years 2008-2009 and 2009-2010
The Section 190 Grade Separation Fund Program provides funds to public agencies to grade-separate existing at-grade crossings, eliminate existing at-grade crossings, or improve existing grade-separated crossings. The funds are allocated based on a prioritized list of nominated projects developed through a formal proceeding by the Public Utilities Commission. The California Transportation Commission and the California Department of Transportation use the Priority List to allocate funds of $15 million made available to the program annually to assist local governments in financing construction and reconstruction of grade separation projects. The Priority List, which is created every two years, establishes the relative priorities for funding qualified projects to eliminate or grade separate railroad crossings.
On July 12, 2007, the Commission issued an Order Instituting Investigation (OII) for establishing the highway-rail Grade Separation Priority List for fiscal years 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. The current Priority List for fiscal year 2008-2009 was adopted in the Commission's final Decision 08-06-032, dated June 26, 2008. For the 2009-2010 fiscal year, funded projects will be removed from the list, and the updated list reissued in June 2009.
If you wish to nominate a grade separation project for inclusion on the next Priority List, you must complete and file a nomination application and participate in the Commission's OII. The OII and appendices include an explanation and filing requirements for participating in the program, including a nomination form and instructions, and listing the criteria and formulas used to rank all nominations. View the last OII for a preview.
The next call for projects will be July 2009.
For more information, contact Rosa Muñoz, Utilities Engineer, at 213-576-7078 or rxm@cpuc.ca.gov.