The Olympia, Wash.-based commission has the authority to approve new crossings and the inspect, close, or alter existing crossings.
Through its Grade Crossing Protective Fund, the commission issued $1,483,456 in grants for pedestrian and driver safety improvements and upgraded signals and warning devices to reduce injuries, and fatalities.
Of the total, $1,140,000 went to projects for installing or improving active warning devices at three crossings along oil routes.
The balance of the money went to projects ranging from as little as $990, to improve signage at 21 crossings on a rail line at the Port of Chehalis, to $90,840 to the Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad to upgrade train detection, replace batteries and battery chargers, and update signal plans and software at four crossings in Aberdeen.
The Central Washington Railroad received $77,096 for projects in two Yakima Valley towns, while the Cascade & Columbia Railroad received $40,597 for train-detection equipment improvements in Tonasket.
The city of Tacoma was awarded a $50,000-grant for pedestrian signals and gates at a crossing in the Old Town section, adjacent to a stretch of Commencement Bay waterfront popular with walkers and joggers. The crossing had been the site of several fatalities involving pedestrians struck by trains.
Commission officials say there were six grade-crossing fatalities in 2018 and 18 deaths resulting from trespassing on railroad property. So far in 2019, the agency reported, Washington has had five deaths at grade crossings, involving drivers, pedestrians, and a bicyclist. To date there have been nine trespass deaths.
