Idaho Transportation receives railway safety award

The Idaho Transportation Department was one of BNSF Railway Company’s inaugural “Tracking to Zero” award winners this month.

ITD was honored for its dedication to improving railway grade crossing safety in the past year, along with transportation departments in Montana, Wyoming, and New Mexico.

“Because trains are limited in their ability to prevent a collision, safety gains are better achieved by improving how drivers interact around railroad tracks,” said Richard Scott, BNSF’s Assistant Director of Public Projects.

The award is a first-of-its-kind from BNSF and is designed to recognize agencies whose proactive approach to partnership and action results in less than one crossing injury incident per one million BNSF train miles traveled in their respective states per year, officials said. Working with state transportation agencies and community partners helps the company maintain the lowest grade crossing collision rate in the industry, the company said.

Idaho’s portion of the BNSF Railway network consists of approximately 130 miles of railway and 91 crossings that stretch between Bonners Ferry and Coeur d’Alene, and from the Washington state line to Montana’s state line.

“It’s not just railroad crossings on state routes that we manage,” District Traffic Engineer Nathan Herbst said. ITD is responsible for all railroad crossings not on private property, meaning there is state responsibility for those occurring on county and local roads as well. “As an agency, each year we make progress to upgrade more and more crossings throughout the state. Ideally, the goal for ITD is to eventually see some type of active control or signalization at every at-grade crossing in Idaho.”

The cost to enhance crossing can range from $500,000 to $1 million, officials said, and enhancements to improve safety range from constructing grade-separated crossings and enhanced signalization systems, ITD officials said.

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