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12/13/2023
The U.S. Department of Transportation yesterday announced the award of $645.3 million in grants to help rural communities complete transportation projects that will increase mobility, improve safety and generate regional economic growth.
Issued through the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program, the funds include $12 million for a grade crossing project in Georgia and $13.5 million for a project to create a rail-related overpass in West Virginia.
The project in Millen, Georgia, calls for creating three grade-separated rail crossings to improve residential and freight mobility. The project is designed to improve residents’ daily access to local schools, employment centers and social services while minimizing delays, as east-west travel now is impeded by about 10 trains a day. Many of those trains, leaving the Port of Savannah, are increasing in length, according to a USDOT press release.
Intermodal freight mobility in the area will be improved because trucks cannot use the existing overpass. Additionally, construction of the grade-separated crossings will help improve safety and reduce opportunities for trespassing, USDOT officials said.
In Bluefield, West Virginia, the $13.5 million grant to the state's Department of Transportation will help fund construction of an overpass bridge and road improvements on an approach to an intermodal facility. The project will replace an existing one-lane, signal-controlled railroad underpass (Old Bramwel Road/County Route 11/Midway Tunnel) with an overpass that includes separated pedestrian and bicycle accommodations.
Midway Tunnel is a 128-year-old, 195-foot-long underpass on Old Bramwell Road (Mercer County Route 11) that passes under eight Norfolk Southern Railway tracks and associated rail yard. Replacing the underpass with an overpass will make possible the development of an intermodal facility and also will reconnect the disadvantaged Midway community located along Old Bramwell Road and the rest of Bluefield, which are separated by the railroad, according to the USDOT's project fact sheet.