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Rail link upgrade expected to help Up North businesses

LANSING — Michigan is set to receive $20.4 million from a federal grant to improve passenger and freight railroads around the state, including a bridge project in Wexford County.

The Federal Railroad Administration awarded $1.4 billion to 35 states as part of the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety program. They include Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the program will fund projects that improve the safety, efficiency and reliability of passenger and freight rails.

“This grant builds on Michigan’s incredible momentum implementing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” Zachary Kolodin, the chief infrastructure officer in the Michigan Infrastructure Office, said in a press release.

That law authorized up to $108 billion for public transportation programs, the largest federal investment in public transportation in the nation’s history, according to the U.S. Federal Transit Administration.

“We’ve been very lucky and happy to have gotten the support from the Federal Rail Administration to do rail projects here,” said Peter Anastor, the director of the Office of Rail in the Michigan Department of Transportation, or MDOT.

The recent award of $20.4 million is to help replace the Manistee River Train Bridge, a 100-year-old bridge in Wexford County that links freight rail service between southern Michigan and Traverse City. The Great Lakes Central Railroad, based in Owosso, operates the line.

The project is expected to cost a total of $34 million, with MDOT contributing $13 million and the Great Lakes Central Railroad providing $750,000.

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