The U.S. Department of Transportation obligated four grants this week totaling more than $42 million to fund rail safety projects in Florida, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
The grants will support projects in the state’s Brightline Florida rail corridor, such as installing safety fencing, grade crossing upgrades and trespassing alert systems. Brightline’s Florida rail corridor has numerous exposure points to pedestrian and vehicle traffic along its tracks, which have contributed to a higher rate of collisions.
Duffy said the Trump administration inherited more than 3,200 grants that were announced under the Biden administration but not obligated, delaying infrastructure investments.
“The latest consequence of the unprecedented Biden-Buttigieg backlog? Safety grants sat in limbo for years,” Duffy said. “Their failure to execute on these rail grants – some of which stretch back years — put Brightline’s three million annual passengers and Florida communities in unnecessary danger.”
The oldest of those grants was first unveiled in 2022. In Florida, the grants included $24.9 million for the East Coast Corridor Trespassing and Intrusion Mitigation Project, involving 330 highway-railroad crossings along 195 miles of corridor.
Other grants include $15.4 million for the Broward County Sealed Corridor Project, $1.6 million for a Trespassing Identification and Classification System, and $150,000 for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to support overtime costs for targeted enforcement of pedestrian trespassing at identified hot spots.