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Yesterday, BNSF Railway Co. announced it will spend about $92 million on maintenance and rail capacity improvement projects in Oklahoma this year.

An ongoing track maintenance program calls for surfacing and/or undercutting 667 miles of track, replacing 29 miles of rail and about 196,000 ties, and upgrading signals for positive train control (PTC) work.
 
The Oklahoma work is part of BNSF’s $3.9 billion capital expenditure budget for 2012. The Class I has budgeted $2.1 billion for core network and related assets; $1.1 billion for rolling stock and other equipment acquisitions; $400 million for terminal, line and intermodal expansion and efficiency projects; and about $300 million for PTC work.

Meanwhile, Union Pacific Railroad plans to spend about $25 million to upgrade a 34-mile line between Fults and Chester, Ill.

To be completed by mid-October, the project calls for replacing most of the rail on both mainlines and renewing surfaces at 73 grade crossings. The work is in addition to a project UP is carrying out this year on the Illinois Department of Transportation’s high-speed rail corridor between Chicago and St. Louis.  

The Fults-to-Chester project is part of UP’s $3.6 billion capex budget for 2012.