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This week, Kansas City Southern began a six-week track maintenance project near Vicksburg, Miss., designed to speed traffic on the railroad's key Meridian Speedway lane between Meridian, Miss., and Shreveport, La.

The Class I plans to upgrade a 17-mile line from Bovay, La., to Smiths, Miss., by installing centralized traffic control in dark territory, replacing 12,000 ties, spreading 20,000 tons of ballast and renewing the line's drainage system. Last month, KCS extended a siding near Vicksburg from 3,500 feet to 8,500 feet to enable trains to meet and pass.

"From June 2004 to June 2005, KCS will have invested more engineering capital in and around Vicksburg than anywhere else on the railroad," said Senior Vice President of International Engineering Jerry Heavin in a prepared statement.