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On Tuesday, representatives from Conrail, Salem County, N.J., and the South Jersey Port Corp. (SJPC) signed an agreement to receive an $18.5 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery III grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the Delaware River Rail/Port Improvement Project.

The grant will leverage $117.6 million in local funding to upgrade a rail bridge and running track, improve rail connections at SJPC's Camden, Paulsboro and Salem ports, and upgrade Swedesboro-to-Salem rail links. The SJPC formed an alliance with Salem County and Conrail to advance the project.

The project calls for upgrading a 42-mile rail line from Port Salem, through Swedesboro, Paulsboro, Camden and the Delair bridge. In addition, a new two-mile connection to docks under construction at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal will be built.

Other project elements include rehabilitating the Delair bridge approach, replacing the Oldmans trestle, rehabbing a Salem running track and improving at-grade rail infrastructure in Paulsboro.

The project will enable train speed along the 18-mile line from Swedesboro to Salem, which currently is limited to 5 mph because of poor track conditions, to be increased, SJPC officials said in a prepared statement. The rail improvements also will provide the terminals ship-side rail capacity and an enhanced ability to tie into the North American rail network and markets, including the West Coast, they said.

"You can't be a world-class economy without having world-class ports, and world-class ports require efficient world-class rail from dock to markets that this project will upgrade," said SJPC Chairman Richard Alaimo.