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The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s (NCDOT) Rail Division plans to hold an informal public hearing Dec. 5 to review proposed track and grade crossing improvements along an 11-mile segment between Salisbury and Kannapolis. Part of the Raleigh-to-Charlotte “Piedmont Improvement Program,” the stretch of second track runs along the North Carolina Railroad Co. and Norfolk Southern Railway.
 
The proposed project would include the construction of an additional track mostly on the west side of existing track from south of Salisbury to Kannapolis. Three new bridges also would be built to separate automobile and train traffic.
 
The project will “improve train reliability by allowing passenger and freight trains to quickly and efficiently move around each other, aid in future growth of train traffic and provide railroad tracks that will be able to support higher speeds,” NCDOT officials said in a meeting notice.
 
In addition, replacing selected crossings with new bridges would help prevent vehicle/train collisions, as well as reduce vehicle and train traffic congestion, and train-horn noise, they said.