How Fairfield Leveraged a Federal Planning Grant into a $40 Million Construction Project

By:

CitiesSpeak Guest

November 6, 2026 - (7 min read)

Authored by Scott Timmer, City Manager, Fairfield, Ohio

Three years ago, Fairfield, Ohio, secured a $3 million Railroad Crossing Elimination Program grant from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to begin planning and preliminary engineering to fix two busy and problematic railroad crossings. Community leaders had wanted a fix for decades. Now, that vision has a $40 million federal construction award to advance the Symmes Road Grade Separation Project and separate the rail and road traffic permanently.

Key Takeaways

Cities and towns can put federal infrastructure planning dollars to work to find a path forward to construction like Fairfield did.
Build a strong coalition and advocate consistently with Congressional representatives and federal decision-makers on grants.
Treat federal grant funding as a long-term strategy, including advocating for federal grant programs that match your future infrastructure needs.

Why Fairfield Kept Pursuing the Project

The Symmes Road and North Gilmore Road crossings are important east-west connections through Fairfield and the surrounding region. More than 40 train movements interact with traffic on the two roads each day. The two crossings have experienced 17 crashes, 8 fatalities and 11 injuries between 1975 and 2025.

FRA’s blocked-crossing database also recorded 38 unique incidents of trains blocking the Symmes Road crossing since March 2021, with observers reporting an average estimated duration of approximately 98 minutes. When trains block the crossings, motorists are delayed. Businesses lose reliable access. Emergency responders must consider alternate routes. School transportation is affected. And trains themselves are operating through a corridor where at-grade crossings can interfere with rail movements.

Now, this project will eliminate the existing at-grade railroad crossings at Symmes Road and North Gilmore Road. Symmes Road will be reconstructed as a grade-separated roadway over the CSX railroad, while the North Gilmore Road crossing will be permanently closed. The completed project will eliminate those conflicts and create approximately 4.5 miles of uninterrupted rail corridor through Fairfield, improving rail fluidity for freight and passenger rail service. That makes the project simultaneously a local safety project, a regional transportation project and a rail infrastructure project.

From Planning to Construction

When Fairfield received its initial $3 million RCE award in 2023, the grant was not intended to build the project. It funded the work necessary to determine whether and how the project could be delivered and reduced the uncertainty of construction costs. The work included FRA issuing the project’s Categorical Exclusion on May 11, 2026, completing the NEPA process. Preliminary engineering and the project’s Basis of Design were also advanced.

When Congress created rail planning as an eligible grant in addition to construction, Fairfield’s experience is an example of why this approach works. The planning grant did exactly what it was supposed to do: it created the foundation for the future construction grant. Rather than treating the planning grant as the finish line, we treated it as the beginning of the next phase.

Now, the FRA awarded Fairfield $40 million through the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program, with an additional $10 million committed by local project partners. For Fairfield, this FRA grant is a transformational infrastructure investment. For other local governments considering federal competitive grants, Fairfield’s experience demonstrates how communities can use federal grant as a long-term strategy, and I’d like to share what we learned.

Federal Grants Require More Than a Good Project

One of the biggest lessons from our experience is that having a good project is only the starting point. Competitive federal grants require municipalities to make a compelling case that the project deserves federal investment and that the applicant can successfully deliver it. Fairfield approached the project as a sales effort as much as an engineering effort. The engineering demonstrates that a project is feasible; our advocacy had to demonstrate why it was worth funding.

Your Coalition of Support Matters

We worked to build support from local elected officials, neighboring communities, county government, state agencies, regional transportation organizations, businesses, emergency responders and our Congressional delegation. We appreciated the support from Governor Mike DeWine, U.S. Senator Jon Husted, Congressman Warren Davidson, Ohio Senate Majority Whip George Lang, State Representative Jennifer Gross, ODOT, OKI, Butler County, Butler County RTA, MetroParks of Butler County, Fairfield City Schools, Fairfield Police and Fire, Amtrak, the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce, REDI Cincinnati and local businesses, among others. That broad coalition mattered.

Taking the Project to Washington

We also learned that local governments cannot expect federal decision-makers to discover their projects on their own. Fairfield officials have consistently taken the project to D.C., using opportunities through the National League of Cities, meetings with our Congressional delegation and direct engagement with federal transportation officials to make the case for why this investment matters. We approached federal officials with a developed project, a clear problem, a strong regional coalition and a demonstrated commitment to completing the work.

Leverage Momentum

By the time Fairfield submitted its subsequent applications for construction funding, the project could demonstrate that federal investment had already produced tangible progress. Environmental review was substantially advanced, preliminary engineering was underway, the project had a defined scope and schedule, the railroad was engaged and the non-federal match had been secured. The message to FRA was straightforward: You helped us develop this project, and now it’s time to take the next step.

Partnership Makes the Project Possible

Local governments do not have to deliver major infrastructure projects alone. Fairfield partnered with the Butler County Transportation Improvement District, which has extensive experience administering federal transportation grants and delivering major infrastructure projects. The Ohio Rail Development Commission is a critical state partner and serves as the lead applicant for the FSP award. CSX Transportation is also an active project partner, including financial participation in the non-federal match and coordination on project scope, construction phasing and maintaining rail operations during construction.

The Long Game of Federal Grant Seeking

Federal competitive grants are, by definition, competitive. There will be applications that do not get funded. Perhaps the most important lesson I would offer other local government leaders is that federal grant success rarely happens overnight.

Our first application did not ask the federal government to fund a $50 million construction project. It asked for $3 million to help us determine how to solve a difficult problem. We then used that investment to develop the project, answer questions, build partnerships and position ourselves for the much larger construction request. That process took years. It also required local government officials to spend time in Washington, build relationships, understand federal priorities, develop a compelling narrative, coordinate with regional and state partners and remain persistent even when there was no guarantee of success.

The result is a $40 million federal investment that will address a problem Fairfield has been trying to solve for decades.

“You can’t give it up. Otherwise nothing will get done.”

– Don Hassler, former Fairfield City Councilmember

Tell Congress About Grants You Need Before They Disappear

Please know that federal grants also do not magically appear. NLC works every day with Congress to speak up for the grants local governments want, but the scary truth right now, every rail grant program is defunded until Congress passes a new surface transportation reauthorization. The two grant programs we used in Fairfield are no longer taking applications. More than $36 billion in infrastructure grant programs that cities and towns rely on were paused without funding this fall, and Congress must decide very soon which programs will exist for your city and other cities to apply for in the near future. If your community has a transportation or water need, now is the best time to talk to your Congressional delegation and ensure a grant program remains for your community and other to apply to in the next five years.

Fairfield’s experience demonstrates that a community can improve its position by treating federal funding as a long-term strategic effort: identify the right project, build the partnerships, deliver the development work, tell the story, advocate persistently and be ready when the next opportunity arrives.

Three years ago, Fairfield had a $3 million planning grant and a vision. Today, we have a $40 million construction award and a project ready to move forward.

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