Cite as: 529 U. S. 344 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
regulations, "§§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) displace state and private decisionmaking authority by establishing a federal-law requirement that certain protective devices be installed or federal approval obtained." Ibid. As a result, those regulations "effectively set the terms under which railroads are to participate in the improvement of crossings." Ibid.
In Easterwood itself, we ultimately concluded that the plaintiff's state tort claim was not pre-empted. Ibid. As here, the plaintiff brought a wrongful death action alleging that the railroad had not maintained adequate warning devices at a particular grade crossing. Id., at 661. We held that §§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) were not applicable because the warning devices for which federal funds had been obtained were never actually installed at the crossing where the accident occurred. Id., at 671-673. Nonetheless, we made clear that, when they do apply, §§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) "cover the subject matter of state law which, like the tort law on which respondent relies, seeks to impose an independent duty on a railroad to identify and/or repair dangerous crossings." Id., at 671. The sole question in this case, then, is whether §§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) "are applicable" to all warning devices actually installed with federal funds.
We believe that Easterwood answers this question as well. As an original matter, one could plausibly read §§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) as being purely definitional, establishing a standard for the adequacy of federally funded warning devices but not requiring that all such devices meet that standard. Easterwood rejected this approach, however, and held that the requirements spelled out in (b)(3) and (4) are mandatory for all warning devices installed with federal funds. "[F]or projects that involve grade crossings . . . in which 'Federal-aid funds participate in the installation of the [warning] devices,' regulations specify warning devices that must be installed." Id., at 666 (emphasis added). Once it is accepted that the regulations are not merely definitional, their scope is plain: They apply to "any project where
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