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On Monday, the states of Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia applied for a total of $109.2 million in TIGER II discretionary grants for Norfolk Southern Railway’s Crescent Corridor intermodal initiative. The U.S. Department of Transportation solicited applications for the TIGER II program — which is similar to the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — until Aug. 23.

The TIGER II grants would help NS and the states fund new and expanded intermodal facilities in Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Pa., and Charlotte, N.C., as well as track and signal improvements in Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia.

Developed through a public-private partnership, the $2.5 billion Crescent Corridor program calls for creating a high-capacity, 2,500-mile intermodal route from New Jersey to Louisiana. The corridor would “touch 26 percent of the nation’s population and 30 percent of the nation’s manufacturing output,” and provide the shortest double-stack route between the South and Northeast, according to the public/private partners.

Planned Crescent Corridor projects include new intermodal facilities in Birmingham, Ala.; Charlotte; Memphis, Tenn.; and Franklin County, Pa. The program also includes expansions to the Harrisburg and Philadelphia terminals; additional freight-rail capacity in Virginia and Mississippi; additional passing tracks and new double track; improved signaling systems; and other track speed enhancements.