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Union Pacific Railroad recently began preliminary work on a $41.7 million track improvement project between Ft. Worth and Sweetwater, Texas.

The Class I plans to replace 46 miles of rail between West Fort Worth and Brazos; replace 243,500 ties between Brazos and Sweetwater; spread 114,740 tons of ballast between West Fort Worth and Sweetwater; surface and line 196 track miles; and replace surfaces at 184 grade crossings.

Crews will begin the bulk of the work May 8. Scheduled to be completed in mid-August, the project is part of UP's 2005 maintenance-of-way (MOW) capital plan, which calls for spending more than $1 billion to maintain and improve track within the road's 33,000-mile system.

UP already has begun MOW work in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, including more than $27 million worth of projects designed to improve track at the railroad's south San Antonio yard and upgrade a Newport, Ark.-to-Harviell, Mo. mainline.