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Union Pacific Railroad plans to spend about $42 million to upgrade lines in Arizona. Projects under way in the first quarter include track renewal work in the Phoenix and Mesa areas, tie replacement at Phoenix and Tucson yards, and tie replacement on a mainline between Casa Grande and Yuma.

To be completed in May, the projects call for installing 156,000 wood and 58,000 concrete ties, laying 24 miles of welded rail and spreading 140,000 tons of ballast. At the yards, crews will replace 46,000 ties and add ballast.

Meanwhile, Human Resource Executive magazine recently named UP one of the 50 most-admired for companies in 2009 for their human resource department. The Class I ranked No. 19, up 10 spots from the 2008 list.

Hay Group conducted the research used to develop the rankings. Criteria included management quality, people management, innovativeness, and the quality of human resource products and services.

BNSF Railway Co. ranked No. 33, Norfolk Southern Corp. ranked No. 41 and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. ranked No. 28. Other rankings include Walt Disney Corp. at No. 1, GE at No. 27 and Jacobs Engineering Group at No. 40.