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3/6/2023
The intercity passenger-rail company Brightline announced late last week it has completed a $5.4 million federally funded project to upgrade 48 grade crossings in three South Florida counties.
In 2017, the Federal Railroad Administration awarded Brightline a $2.3 million grant through the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) program, which covered about half of the total cost of the projects, company officials said in a press release. The crossings — located in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — are part of the rail corridor Brightline shares with Florida East Coast Railway.
The scope of work was different for each crossing and included one or more of the following: exit gates; flexible edge-of-roadway delineators and striping; center-line delineators; active message signs and raised medians.
The active message signs — shown in English, Spanish and Creole — feature digital messaging to warn when a train is approaching.
The 11 cities where the projects were completed contributed a combined $1.5 million, while Brightline paid $1.4 million, company officials said. Brightline partnered with the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency to install the safety improvements.
Brightline invested an additional $500,000 to install center-line delineators at 29 crossings in Broward County to deter motorists from driving around lowered gates.