FAIRFIELD, Ohio — The frequency of crashes between trains and cars has dropped considerably over the past two decades.

In fact, data from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio shows the number of them got cut in half from 2001 until 2021. 

 What You Need To Know
  •   Fairfield was awarded $3 million from the National Railroad Crossing Elimination grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation  

  •   The grant is to help improve safety for the railroad crossings on Symmes & North Gilmore Roads  

  •   There have been 18 crashes and eight deaths over the past 30 years at those crossings  

  •   With the funding, they plan to build an overpass to separate the trains from the vehicles  

The Biden administration is hoping to reduce that number even further. This week, the administration allocated more than $10 million to make a handful of railroad crossings in Ohio safer.

Symmes and North Gilmore Roads in Fairfield can get pretty hectic. Add two railroad tracks on top of that, it makes traffic flow even more chaotic. 

"The roads are pretty busy," said Benn Mann, Fairfield Public Works Director. "Symmes Road is in the 13,000 to 15,000 cars-a-day range. On North Gilmore, a little bit less than that is 8 to 10000 cars, somewhere in that range. So they're busy roads, Busy roads here in the city."

Mann said nearly 40 trains cross these two railroad tracks a day. The crossings have skewed angles and make it harder for drivers to drive across them. There have been 18 crashes and eight deaths over the past 30 years at those crossings. 

"North Gilmore Road is adjacent to our high school, which serves both the city and the township," he said. "So it's pretty large high school and the freshman school. So there's also safety concerns with all those school buses and drivers that would cross those tracks."

To help prevent crashes, the Butler County Transportation Improvement District applied for the five-year National Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. They were awarded $3 million.

With this money, they plan to build an overpass to keep the trains and vehicles apart from each other. 

"Once there's a permanent overpass over the road, I would expect more vehicular traffic to go that way," he said. "It may not be a great increase, but I would expect at least some increase in that."

This grant is a part of a larger program from the Biden administration. The program has invested $570 million to help improve the safety of 34 railroad crossings across the nation. City Manager Scott Timmer said this is a huge help. 

"It's rarely, if ever, something that a local government can do on its own," said Timmer. "So getting that assistance and buy in from the federal government is going to be tremendous in helping us get this project done. Without it. I don't think this is a project that we would be able to accomplish on our own."

Fairfield and Butler County are both committing to a 20% match of the grant funding. They're currently in the planning stages. It's their hope by 2025 that they'll moving forward with construction plans. 

"This is a very exciting first step in what will be many years of planning and public engagement to determine exactly what is necessary at these at grade crossings and provide for public safety as well as overall safety enhancements for our community," he said.