Specialty and competitive programs
Railway-Highway Crossings
The Railway-Highway Crossings (Section 130) Program funds the elimination of hazards at railway-highway crossings. It has been correlated with a significant decrease in fatalities at railway-highway grade crossings. Since the Program's inception in 1987 through 2014, for which most recent data is available, fatalities at these crossings have decreased by 57 percent. The overall reductions in fatalities come despite an increase in the vehicle miles traveled on roadways and an increase in the passenger and freight traffic on the railways.
Projects are solicited annually from local road authorities, railroads and MnDOT districts in three project categories: closures/consolidations, antiquated equipment and grade crossing control.
Consolidations projects
Criteria include number of crossings closed, risk factors, and deficient geometry.
Antiquated equipment projects
Criteria include railroad priority, exposure, and cost participation over the required minimum of 10 percent.
Grade crossing control projects
Criteria include local road authority funding priority, magnitude of clearing sight distance restriction, exposure, crossing density less than five per mile, and cost participation over the required minimum of 10 percent.
Rail Grade Separations
The Section 130-funded railway-highway crossing program does not fund grade separations of highway-railway crossings. Most grade separation projects are funded through non-MnDOT competitive programs or state bonding. A current list of candidate projects was scored and prioritized in a 2014 study of rail lines carrying crude oil.