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The Muskogee City-County Port Authority has contracted engineering firm Holloway, Updike and Bellen Inc. to determine the scope and cost of widening an overpass to accommodate a second track at the Port of Muskogee, Okla.

The port plans to add the track to accommodate increasing rail traffic at the Johnston Terminal. The track would be laid adjacent to an existing track leading to the port’s marshaling yard, which is within Union Pacific Railroad’s switching limits.

A turnpike bridge over the tracks currently isn’t wide enough for two sets of tracks. UP and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority have preliminarily approved plans to modify the overpass.

In the year’s first two months, 809 rail cars carried 74,002 tons of cargo into and out of the port compared with 460 rail cars carrying 53,422 tons in the same 2011 period.