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On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it will provide $16.9 million for 12 projects designed to relocate, replace or improve segments of track. The funds will be allocated through the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) Rail Line Relocation and Improvement grant program.
 
The FRA received requests seeking more than $67 million in program funding. The grants are made available through annual appropriations and require a 10 percent match from the project sponsor.

The recipients and grant amounts include:
• $2,437,388 to Lyoming County, Pa., for the Lycoming Valley Railroad to improve track and related infrastructure that was damaged by Tropical Storm Lee in September 2011;
• $2,220,000 to the city of Ocala, Fla., for the Florida Northern Railroad relocation and improvement project, which calls for relocating a line running along a city street;
• $2 million to the Massachusetts DOT for the Patriot Corridor double-stack clearance initiative, which calls for removing 19 obstructions in two tunnels and 17 roadway, rail and pedestrian bridges to enable a double-stack train to operate along the corridor between Mechanicville, N.Y., and Ayer, Mass.;
• $2 million to the city of Sioux City, Iowa, to construct the Southbridge Rail Yard;
• $1,803,801 to the South Dakota DOT for the Sioux Valley Railroad relocation project;
• $1,608,029 to the Indiana DOT for the Daviess County-Elnora siding, which will enable the Indiana Southern Railroad to relocate its switching and staging operations to the new siding;
• $1,595,994 to the city of Sylacauga, Ala., for the Sylacauga Railroad Interchange Relocation project, which includes the construction of two new sidings;
• $960,567 to the city of West Sacramento, Calif., for the Port of West Sacramento loop track;
• $896,949 to the city of Indianapolis for a downtown rail relocation project;
• $819,900 to Alaska Railroad Corp. for a curve realignment along a tributary of the Nenana River that experienced numerous floods;
• $299,423 to the city of Big Spring, Texas, for a rail spur rehabilitation; and
• $248,934 to the South Carolina Department of Commerce for the South Carolina Public Railways s-curve realignment project.