Money in the
Grade Crossing Protection Fund is administered by the Illinois Commerce
Commission (ICC) but appropriated to the Illinois Department of
Transportation. The program was created
by the General Assembly to assist local jurisdictions (counties, townships and
municipalities) in paying for safety improvements at highway-rail grade
crossings on local roads and streets.
In carrying out its mandated responsibility, the ICC orders improvements
at public highway-rail grade crossings and bridges that it determines to be in
the interest of public safety. The cost
of these ordered improvements is shared by the State, the railroads, and local
governments. The majority of the cost
of these improvements is funded through the Grade Crossing Protection Fund.
Money for the Grade
Crossing Protection Fund (GCPF) comes from a portion of State motor fuel tax
receipts. Each month since Fiscal Year
2000, $2.25 million has been transferred from the Motor Fuel Tax Fund into the
Grade Crossing Protection Fund. This
amount provides the Fund with $27 million annually to be used for safety
improvements at highway-rail crossings on local roads and streets. Prior to Fiscal Year 2000, $1.5 million was
transferred monthly for a total of $18 million per year for projects.
Total expenditures
for Grade Crossing Protection Fund projects were $25 million in Fiscal Year
2001 and $34 million in Fiscal Year 2002.
These expenditures were typically used for warning device upgrades;
grade separations including construction, reconstruction, or repair of bridges
over or under railroad tracks; interconnects where crossing signals are
connected to the adjacent traffic signals so that the two systems operate in a
synchronized manner; road work including approaches and connecting roads;
remote monitoring devices which immediately alert the railroad to any problems
in warning device operations; or low cost improvements at crossings not
equipped with automatic warning devices.
The Motor Fuel Tax
Law has required the Illinois Commerce Commission to develop, each year since
Fiscal Year 2000, a one and five year Project Plan for rail crossing capital
improvements that will be paid for with monies from the Grade Crossing
Protection Fund. However, because of
the significant amount of time between the initiation of a project and the
expenditure of funds on a project, most projects with expenditures in Fiscal
Year 2002 were initiated prior to the 2002 Plan. Only $3,854 of the $34 million in Fiscal Year 2002 expenditures
were for projects from the Fiscal Year 2002 Project Plan.
Administration for
Grade Crossing Protection Fund projects is shared between the Illinois Commerce
Commission and the Illinois Department of Transportation. There is little written guidance available
on which agency has responsibility for the various required functions related
to managing Grade Crossing Protection Fund projects. In addition, limited on-site construction management is currently
done.
The majority of
project milestones for the projects we reviewed in detail were not achieved in
a timely manner. Railroads and local
government agencies were not timely at supplying plans, submitting progress
reports, and completing the project.
None of ten projects for which we did detailed testing completed all
project milestones in a timely manner.
The Illinois
Commerce Commission’s automated system does not capture certain date
information that would allow for more effective analysis and management of
Grade Crossing Protection Fund projects.
Not having these dates captured may be due to a lack of active on-site
construction management and because ICC staff are not routinely involved in the
completion of projects.
The ICC is
responsible for administering a rail safety program and expenditures for the
program are paid for from the Transportation Regulatory Fund. Over the past years, the statutory transfer
from the Grade Crossing Protection Fund to the Transportation Regulatory Fund
to support the administration of rail safety at the ICC has increased. From Fiscal Years 1993 to 1996, the annual
transfer was $750,000; from Fiscal Years 1997 through 2000, the annual transfer
was $1,500,000; and from Fiscal Years 2001 through 2004, the transfer was
$2,250,000.
The Grade Crossing
Protection Fund and the Transportation Regulatory Fund have both experienced
high fund balances carried over from year to year. The Grade Crossing Protection Fund has had an average year end
balance of over $40 million over ten years and the Transportation Regulatory
Fund averaged over $5 million. These
large fund balances have occurred during a time of increased transfers into the
Funds to be used for grade crossing projects and rail safety
administration. The Illinois Commerce
Commission and the Illinois Department of Transportation should work to
appropriately manage fund balances in the Grade Crossing Protection Fund.
Both the Illinois
Commerce Commission and the Illinois Department of Transportation have some
responsibilities for GCPF project expenditure review; however, neither agency
adequately reviews actual expenditures to verify the validity of the materials,
labor, or personnel expenses, as they relate to the scope of the project. In addition, there are no clear standards on
what documentation is to be included with billings for Grade Crossing
Protection Fund projects.
Expenditure
documentation submitted for payment varied from projects where significant
documentation was submitted, including items which were unrelated to projects,
to projects where little or no supporting documentation was submitted. Without consistent documentation and
thorough review of expenditures it is difficult to know whether expenditures
were appropriate or if all required elements of projects were done.
We did not identify
any instances where the Illinois Commerce Commission did not comply with
statutes guiding the Grade Crossing Protection Fund process. Most requirements related to the Fund are
found in a section of the Motor Fuel Tax Law (35 ILCS 505/8(c)).
The Illinois
Commerce Commission conducts investigations of all accidents at rail crossings
that involve a fatality but does not investigate all accidents. The Commission staff should investigate rail
accidents to help them in fulfilling their responsibility of assuring that
adequate warning devices are in place at grade crossings.
On July 12, 2002, the Legislative Audit Commission
adopted Resolution 123. The Resolution
directed the Auditor General to conduct a management audit of expenditures from
the Grade Crossing Protection Fund. The
Resolution asks us to include:
1.
The
amount and purpose of expenditures and transfers from the Grade Crossing
Protection Fund in Fiscal Years 2001 and 2002, including administrative versus
construction-related costs; and
2.
Whether
expenditures and transfers from the Grade Crossing Protection Fund made in
Fiscal Years 2001 and 2002 appeared to be in conformity with applicable
statutes. (page 3)
grade crossing protection fund pROGRAM
|
Illinois has 8,568 public grade level crossings.
|
The Illinois Commerce Commission has the statutory
responsibility to assure safety at all public highway-rail crossings in the
State of Illinois. In January of 2003, there
were 8,568 public grade level crossings in Illinois, of which 7,390 or 86
percent were on local roads and streets.
Illinois also had 2,739 grade separated crossings (bridges), 276
pedestrian grade crossings, and 76 pedestrian grade separated crossings
(bridges). At a “grade level crossing”
or “at-grade crossing” both the road and the rail are on the same level. The Grade Crossing Protection Fund is used
to help modify or upgrade crossings on local roads and streets. Upgrades on State roads are paid for with
State Road Fund monies.
|
Digest Exhibit 1
GRADE CROSSING PROTECTION FUND EXPENDITURES BY TYPE
Fiscal Years 2001 and 2002 combined
|
|
TYPE
|
Total
|
% of Total
|
|
Bridge
|
$29,636,687
|
50%
|
|
Signals/Gates
|
$8,493,339
|
14%
|
|
4-Quad Gates
and Signals
|
$5,539,514
|
9%
|
|
Interconnect
Circuitry
|
$4,809,592
|
8%
|
|
Signals/Gates/Roadwork
|
$4,172,542
|
7%
|
|
Detection
|
$4,142,869
|
7%
|
|
Bridge/Signals
|
$1,468,608
|
2%
|
|
Signals
|
$584,263
|
1%
|
|
Roadwork
|
$487,810
|
1%
|
|
Gates
|
$124,030
|
0%
|
|
Median
|
$78,158
|
0%
|
|
Grand Total
|
$59,537,412
|
100%
|
|
Note:
|
Percentages do not add
due to rounding.
|
|
Source:
|
ICC data analyzed by OAG.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
State financial support for crossing safety
improvement projects on local roads comes from the Grade Crossing Protection
Fund. The Motor Fuel Tax Law provides
that each month $2.25 million in State motor fuel tax receipts is transferred from
the Motor Fuel Tax Fund to the Grade Crossing Protection Fund. This amount provides $27 million annually to
be used for local crossing safety improvements. Digest Exhibit 1 shows expenditures by type from the Grade
Crossing Protection Fund for Fiscal Years 2001 and 2002. In Fiscal Year 2002 there were $34 million
in expenditures from the Fund and the year end fund balance was $30
million. Fiscal Year 2002 had the
highest expenditures and lowest fund balance in ten years.
Money in the Grade Crossing
Protection Fund is administered by the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) but
appropriated to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). The
program was created by the General Assembly to assist local jurisdictions
(counties, townships and municipalities) in paying for safety improvements at
railroad crossings on local roads. (pages 3-4, 27-30)
|
Annually, $27 million is transferred from the Motor Fuel
Tax Fund to the Grade Crossing Protection Fund for local crossing safety
improvements.
|
|
coordination between agencies
|
There is little written guidance available on which agency
has responsibility for the various required functions related to managing
Grade Crossing Protection Fund projects.
|
There is little written guidance available on which
agency has responsibility for the various required functions related to
managing Grade Crossing Protection Fund projects. In addition, limited project management is currently done. Administration for projects currently is
shared between the Illinois Commerce Commission and the Illinois Department of
Transportation. There is no interagency
agreement, nor are there administrative rules or statutes in place to describe
which agency is responsible for managing what aspect of the process. In addition, neither the ICC nor IDOT
currently has written policies or procedures in place to direct and assist its
employees with duties associated with Grade Crossing Protection Fund projects.
While there was some coordination between IDOT and
ICC, adoption of an Interagency Agreement would document which agency was
responsible for areas such as review of cost estimates and plans, review of
expenditures, project management, and close-out inspections. Such an agreement would eliminate the
possibility of duplication of efforts and oversight, as well as ensure that
essential elements of project management were being achieved. We recommended that the Illinois Commerce
Commission and the Illinois Department of Transportation develop written
policies and procedures and adopt an Interagency Agreement that clarifies each
agency’s management responsibilities relating to Grade Crossing Protection Fund
projects. (pages 16-17)
MANAGEMENT OF GCPF PROJECTS
Before the beginning of the
fiscal year, ICC staff create a Project Plan which is made up of two
components. The first component lists
projects expected to be undertaken in that given year and the second is a
four-year outlook listing for future projects.
Because of the significant amount of time between the initiation of a
project and the expenditure of funds on a project, most projects with
expenditures in Fiscal Year 2002 were initiated prior to the 2002 Plan. Only $3,854 of the $34 million of Fiscal
Year 2002 expenditures were for projects from the Fiscal Year 2002 Project
Plan.
Before an Order is issued, ICC staff are
significantly involved in developing stipulated agreements and assuring that
the work to be done will assure safety at the specified crossing or crossings. This involvement is particularly important
because assuring crossing safety is ICC’s statutory responsibility. However, ICC staff indicated to us that
their primary administrative responsibility ends after an Order is issued and
the detailed engineering plans have been approved, unless the railroad or the
local community asks for assistance or time to complete the project.
The ICC did not have adequate controls in place to
track and monitor compliance with the requirements that it placed in Orders for
GCPF projects. ICC Orders contain
several completion dates with which the railroads and local governments are
required to adhere. We found that
detailed plans were missing from 1 of 10 projects sampled, and were submitted
late for six of the other nine projects sampled where they were required by the
ICC Order. In addition, for the nine
projects sampled where progress reports were required by the Order, all were
either missing the required reports or the reports were not timely. Late or missing plans and progress reports
indicate that there is a lack of oversight or project management.
The ICC does not assure that prescribed work is
done, work is done on schedule, or that expenditures for the project are
appropriate. In addition to not
reviewing work in progress, ICC employees also generally do not review the work
when it is complete to assure that it was done appropriately. In some instances IDOT district engineers
may do a post completion review but they do not have the same level of
expertise about crossing safety device issues.
We recommended that the Illinois Commerce Commission
assure that Grade Crossing Protection Fund projects are adequately
managed. To do this, the expertise of
ICC Railroad Safety Specialists should be utilized through on-site construction
management to assure that the needed safety work is performed, that Order
requirements are met, and that project expenditures are proper. (pages 13-14,
17-19)
Timeliness of the Process
|
None of ten projects for which we did detailed testing
completed all project milestones in a timely manner.
|
The majority of project
milestones for the projects we reviewed in detail were not achieved in a timely
manner. Railroads and local government
agencies were
not timely at supplying plans, submitting progress reports, and completing the
project. None of ten projects for which
we did detailed testing completed all project milestones in a timely manner.
The projects in our sample
took an average of 3.8 years to complete from project initiation date to the
completion date. Of that time, 1.7
years was from the date of the Order to the completion date. The project initiation date is the date of
earliest documentation that identified the need for the project.
Seventy percent of projects
from our sample (7 of 10) had pre-Order periods longer than the total project
completion time from the Order date.
Some projects had pre-Order periods as high as four years or more. Sample projects which were on time or
slightly over had some of the longest pre-Order periods.
For the 84 projects that had expenditures in Fiscal
Years 2001 or 2002 and were completed in that period, the average project
completion time was 2.6 years from the year of the Order. Because an exact end date is not captured by
ICC’s existing computer system, the elapsed time was calculated by subtracting
the fiscal year of the Order from the fiscal year that the project was closed
out.
Incomplete Data
The Illinois Commerce Commission’s automated system does not capture certain date
information that would allow for more effective analysis and management of
Grade Crossing Protection Fund projects.
The ICC’s computer system does not capture project initiation date or
the date when all work required by the Order is completed. In addition to missing useful dates in its
computer system, the inventory of rail crossings was incomplete, including not
having data in all records that indicates whether or not a crossing was on a
State road.
We recommended that the Illinois Commerce Commission
assure that appropriate data is captured within computer systems to allow
adequate management and timely completion of Grade Crossing Protection Fund
projects. (pages 19-24)
Transportation Regulatory Fund
The ICC is responsible for administering a rail
safety program and expenditures for the program are paid from the
Transportation Regulatory Fund (TRF).
Annually, $2.25 million is transferred from the Grade Crossing
Protection Fund to the Transportation Regulatory Fund to pay the cost of
administration of the Illinois Commerce Commission's railroad safety program as
it relates to railroad crossings. In recent years, the statutory transfer from the
Grade Crossing Protection Fund to the Transportation Regulatory Fund to support
the administration of rail safety at the ICC has increased. From Fiscal Years 1993 to 1996, the annual
transfer was $750,000; from Fiscal Years 1997 through 2000, the annual transfer
was $1,500,000; and from Fiscal Years 2001 through 2004, the transfer was
$2,250,000.
ICC’s Rail Safety Section (RSS) is responsible
for identifying and prioritizing crossing safety improvements on an annual and
five-year cycle in addition to other rail safety responsibilities. The RSS works with local government agencies
and railroads to identify safety improvement projects for the Commission’s
Crossing Safety Improvement Program.
The RSS is directly responsible for selecting projects authorized by the
Commission to receive assistance from GCPF.
ICC railroad administrative expenditures consist
of various categories including payroll, travel, and equipment. The total amount of Fiscal Year 2001 TRF
expenditures was $9.1 million and the railroad portion of the expenditures was
$4.9 million or 54 percent of the total TRF expenditures. Fiscal Year 2002 TRF expenditures were $8.6
million and the railroad portion was $4.3 million or 50 percent.
Direct expenditures
for railroad are those that can be directly assigned either because of an
employee’s position or because expenditures are directly for railroad. We reviewed the direct expenditures and
found that they appear to be rail crossing safety related. The indirect expenses are allocated based on
a required statutory system.
Allocations of expenses are made from areas such as executive director,
legislative affairs, administrative services, and the office of general
counsel. Allocations are also made
between rail and motor carrier. (pages 31-32, 42)
Digest Exhibit 2
TRANSPORTATION REGULATORY Fund AND GRADE CROSSING
pROTECTION FUND Balances for Fiscal Years 1993 to 2002
Dollars in
Millions
|
Fiscal Year
|
TRF
Balance
|
GCPF Balance
|
|
1993
|
$2.3
|
|
