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Earlier this month, the Kansas City Southern Railroad Co. (KCSR) closed two public grade crossings in Rankin County, Miss., as part of the Mississippi Corridor project.

In 2004, the railroad and Mississippi Department of Transportation agreed to close or upgrade 88 crossings between Vicksburg and Meridian, Miss., by 2009. The parties will spend $10 million on closures and warning system improvements, and $1.8 million on crossing surface upgrades.

Since May 1999, KCSR has closed a total of 66 public crossings systemwide, eliminating 365,000 opportunities for crossing collisions each year, the railroad estimates.

“These 66 closures will eliminate over 1.3 million train movements over public crossings by the end of 2006,” said KCSR Director of Public Safety Allen Pepper in a prepared statement.