U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Several elements of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) included in SAFETEA-LU require reports from the state Departments of Transportation (DOT) to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) or from FHWA to Congress. Reporting requirements include annual assessments of the progress and effectiveness of HSIP and rail grade crossing safety projects, 5% of public road locations with the most severe safety needs, progress on the High Risk Rural Roads (HRRR) Program and the biennial rail grade crossing safety report to Congress. This fact sheet addresses the reporting requirements for all of these programs - the HSIP, "5% reports", Rail Grade Crossings, and High Risk Rural Roads (HRRR).
HSIP Reports - States are required to submit a report, according to the schedule and content established by the Secretary, describing progress on implementing highway safety improvement projects, their effectiveness, and their contribution to reducing roadway related fatalities, injuries and crashes, including railway-highway crossing crashes, and mitigating the impacts of highway related crashes.
5% Reports - As a condition for obligating HSIP funds, a State is required to submit an annual report to the Secretary describing at least 5 percent of locations with the most severe safety needs, plus an assessment of remedies, costs, and other impediments (other than cost) to solving the problems at each location. The determination of these locations is to be made using criteria deemed most appropriate by the States, in establishing relative severity in terms of accidents, injuries, deaths, traffic volume, and other data. The reports are to be made available to the public through the USDOT web site. The contents of these reports are protected from discovery and admission into evidence by Section 148(g)(4) of Title 23, USC, included in SAFETEA-LU.
Railway-Highway Crossings Report-In accordance with 23 USC 130(g), States are required to submit reports annually to the Secretary on the progress being made to implement the railway-highway crossings program, and on the effectiveness of the improvements implemented. The Secretary is required to provide biennial reports to Congress on the progress of the program, with the first report due by April 1, 2006. States may use up to 2% of their funds available under the Railway-Highway Crossings Program for compilation and analysis of data in meeting their reporting requirements.
High Risk Rural Road (HRRR) Program Reporting - The reporting for the HRRR Program should address rural roads, in particular rural major and minor collectors and local roads. This report should a) describe progress being made to implement HRRR projects; b) assess the effectiveness of those improvements; and c) describe the extent to which the improvements contribute to reducing fatalities, injuries and crashes.
Funds made available for the HSIP and up to 2% of the funds set aside for the Rail Grade Crossing program can be used to address the reporting requirements. Rail grade crossing set aside funds are specifically limited to compilation and analysis of data in meeting their rail reporting requirements.
See specific Program Fact Sheets.
See specific Program Fact Sheets
The FHWA Office of safety has provided guidance on reporting within the program guidance. States will need to submit the reports (5%, HSIP, and Rail Crossing Safety) to FHWA Division Offices by August 31 annually. The FHWA Office of Safety will collect and compile the information in the annual reports for inclusion in reports to Congress as required by SAFETEA-LU for railway-highway crossings.
