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49 CFR § 220.11 - Requirements for roadway workers.

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t49/s220.11"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "49 CFR § 220.11 - Requirements for roadway workers."
title_number: 49
title_name: "Transportation"
section_number: "220.11"
section_name: "Requirements for roadway workers."
chapter_name: "FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION"
part_number: "220"
part_name: "RAILROAD COMMUNICATIONS"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-03-24"
last_updated: "2026-03-24"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
authority: "49 U.S.C. 20102-20103, 20103 note, 20107, 21301-21302, 20701-20703, 21304, 21311; 28 U.S.C. 2461 note; and 49 CFR 1.89."
regulatory_source: "63 FR 47195, Sept. 4, 1998, unless otherwise noted."
cfr_part: "220"
---

# 220.11 Requirements for roadway workers.

(a) On and after July 1, 1999, the following requirements apply to a railroad that has 400,000 or more annual employee work hours:

(1) Maintenance-of-way equipment operating without locomotive assistance between work locations shall have a working radio on at least one such unit in each multiple piece of maintenance-of-way equipment traveling together under the same movement authority. The operators of each additional piece of maintenance-of-way equipment shall have communications capability with each other.

(2) Each maintenance-of-way work group shall have intra-group communications capability upon arriving at a work site.

(b) On and after July 1, 1999, each employee designated by the employer to provide on-track safety for a roadway work group or groups, and each lone worker, shall be provided, and where practicable, shall maintain immediate access to a working radio. When immediate access to a working radio is not available, the employee responsible for on-track safety or lone worker shall be equipped with a radio capable of monitoring transmissions from train movements in the vicinity. A railroad with fewer than 400,000 annual employee work hours may provide immediate access to working wireless communications as an alternative to a working radio.

(c) This section does not apply to:

(1) Railroads which have fewer than 400,000 annual employee work hours, and which do not operate trains in excess of 25 miles per hour; or

(2) Railroad operations where the work location of the roadway work group or lone worker:

(i) Is physically inaccessible to trains; or

(ii) Has no through traffic or traffic on adjacent tracks during the period when roadway workers will be present.