Heartland Corridor on target for summer opening

The Heartland Corridor double-stack rail project is on schedule to be completed by summer 2010 said a Norfolk Southern marketing representative speaking at the February lunch meeting of the Hampton Roads Foreign Commerce Club according to the Port of Virginia Website

"We are on track to
have the work completed in July and we should see trains and cargo moving by
August," said Chris Luebbers, group manager for international marketing.
"This project is going to bring a lot of benefit to our company, this port
and our customers."

The project’s status, as of
Jan. 30, is as follows:

— 23 of 28 (82%) tunnels
completed.

— 22 of 25 (88%) other
obstructions cleared.

— 20,924 of 28,843 linear
feet (73%) of tunnel length completed.

When finished, the
$290-million Heartland Corridor will be a direct double-stack rail route that
links The Port of Virginia with the Rickenbacker Global Logistics Park in
Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago.

The biggest part of the
development of the Heartland Corridor involves creating vertical clearance in
existing tunnels so that double-stack trains can safely transit.

Norfolk Southern on
Wednesday also received a boost to its continued development of the Crescent
Corridor. The railroad was awarded $105 million from the federal government for
improvements to the 2,500-mile-long rail network.

The Crescent Corridor
passes through 13 states from Louisiana to New Jersey that touches 26 percent
of the nation’s population and 30 percent of the nation’s manufacturing output.

Last September,
Pennsylvania, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia, submitted an
application to USDOT for a $300 million TIGER grant to help improve Norfolk
Southern’s rail lines and facilities between the Gulf Coast and the Northeast.
All the improvements to the Crescent Corridor are scheduled for completion in
2020.