§ 152 — Hazard Elimination Program

(1) Each State shall conduct and systematically maintain an engineering survey of all public roads to identify hazardous locations, sections, and elements, including roadside obstacles and unmarked or poorly marked roads, which may constitute a danger to motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians, assign priorities for the correction of such locations, sections, and elements, and establish and implement a schedule of projects for their improvement. (2) In carrying out paragraph (1), a State may, at its discretion— (A) identify, through a survey, hazards to motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and users of highway facilities; and (B) develop and implement projects and programs to address the hazards. (b) The Secretary may approve as a project under this section any safety improvement project, including a project described in subsection (a). (c) Funds authorized to carry out this section shall be available for expenditure on— (1) any public road; (2) any public surface transportation facility or any publicly owned bicycle or pedestrian pathway or trail; or (3) any traffic calming measure. (d) The Federal share payable on account of any project under this section shall be 90 percent of the cost thereof. (e) Funds authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section shall be available for obligation in the same manner and to the same extent as if such funds were apportioned under section 104(b), except that the Secretary is authorized to waive provisions he deems inconsistent with the purposes of this section. (f) Each State shall establish an evaluation process approved by the Secretary, to analyze and assess results achieved by safety improvement projects carried out in accordance with procedures and criteria established by this section. Such evaluation process shall develop cost-benefit data for various types of corrections and treatments which shall be used in setting priorities for safety improvement projects. (g) Each State shall report to the Secretary of Transportation not later than December 30 of each year, on the progress being made to implement safety improvement projects for hazard elimination and the effectiveness of such improvements. Each State report shall contain an assessment of the cost of, and safety benefits derived from, the various means and methods used to mitigate or eliminate hazards and the previous and subsequent accident experience at these locations. The Secretary of Transportation shall submit a report to the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives not later than April 1 of each year on the progress being made by the States in implementing the hazard elimination program (including but not limited to any projects for pavement marking). The report shall include, but not be limited to, the number of projects undertaken, their distribution by cost range, road system, means and methods used, and the previous and subsequent accident experience at improved locations. In addition, the Secretary’s report shall analyze and evaluate each State program, identify any State found not to be in compliance with the schedule of improvements required by subsection (a) and include recommendations for future implementation of the hazard elimination program. (h) For the purposes of this section the term “State” shall have the meaning given it in section 401 of this title.