The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway and the state of Illinois announced Monday that they have reached a preliminary agreement on how to spend state funds to upgrade the rail network in Galesburg, Illinois. The agreement is expected to be finalized by the end of the year, and the $45 million construction project is expected to begin in the spring of 2011.
The money will pay for building three additional tracks in Galesburg including two "staging tracks," each only one-mile long, in order to line up freight cars, making it easier to keep both lines on time without affecting one another.