Union Pacific plans $48m investment in Utah Rail infrastructure

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A freight line out of Salt Lake City. Credit: f11photo/Shutterstock.
A freight line out of Salt Lake City. Credit: f11photo/Shutterstock.
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The Union Pacific Railroad has announced plans to spend $48.1 million on its Utah rail infrastructure.

The investment will help to boost safety and efficiency and is part of the freight hauling railroad’s wider $3.1 billion network expenditure for 2017.

Union Pacific – which connects 23 states in the west of the United States – will spend $40.3 million to maintain railroad track in Utah. Of that, $18.4 million will be spent on track between Wells, Nevada, and Salt Lake City; $6.8 million between Lynndyl and Tooele; and $2.6 million on the line between Ogden, and Granger, in Wyoming.

In total, more than 200,000 railroad ties will be replaced.

In addition, $4.2 million will be spent on bridge maintenance in the state too.

Wes Lujan, Union Pacific vice president for public affairs in the Western Region, said: “Union Pacific’s targeted investments fund projects that strengthen our railroad tracks, increase safety and minimise delays as trains travel through communities across Utah.”