Railroad Workplace Safety; Adjacent-Track On-Track Safety for Roadway Workers

FRA is amending its regulations on railroad workplace safety to further reduce the risk of serious injury or death to roadway workers performing work with potentially distracting equipment near certain adjacent tracks. In particular, this final rule requires that roadway workers comply with specified on-track safety procedures that railroads must adopt to protect those workers from the movement of trains or other on-track equipment on "adjacent controlled track." FRA defines "adjacent controlled track" to mean "a controlled track whose track center is spaced 19 feet or less from the track center of the occupied track." These on-track safety procedures are required for each adjacent controlled track when a roadway work group with at least one of the roadway workers on the ground is engaged in a common task with on-track, self-propelled equipment or coupled equipment on an occupied track. In addition, FRA is removing the provision on preemptive effect.