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The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) recently awarded a $2.7 million contract to Queen City Railroad Contractors Inc. to complete the final phase of restoration work on the Piedmont & Northern (P&N) rail corridor in Gaston County.

Located about 20 miles west of Charlotte, the P&N corridor extends about 12 miles from Mount Holly to Gastonia and includes a three-mile branch line to Belmont. The corridor includes interchange points with CSX Transportation in Mount Holly and Norfolk Southern Railway in Gastonia.

To begin in mid-August, the final phase of work includes upgrades to eight miles of track from Ranlo to Mount Holly and 1.5 miles of track on the branch line. The four-mile portion of the corridor from Ranlo to Gastonia was upgraded in December 2009.

Queen City Railroad will install new timber crossties, repair track, lay ballast, surface track, rehabilitate a bridge, construct ditches, cut brush and repair grade crossings. New crossing signals and gates will be installed under a separate contract.

Freight-rail service on the upgraded corridor could begin as early as Nov. 1 and construction work is pegged for completion by January 2012, according to NCDOT. The department contracted Patriot Rail Corp. to operate the P&N line, which was built in 1911 and slated for abandonment in the late 1980s until NCDOT purchased the corridor.