CSX Transportation has work completed or construction underway at one-third of the clearance projects included in the National Gateway, keeping the major American infrastructure initiative on track for completion by 2015.

The National Gateway is a public-private partnership that will create a double-stack freight rail corridor between Mid-Atlantic sea ports and the Midwest. The improvement projects are designed to increase the vertical clearances at 61 locations on CSX rail lines in the region to accommodate intermodal trains carrying double-stack intermodal containers. To date, work is complete at five of the locations, and crews are working at 15 other locations.

CSX recently announced that it will invest an additional $160 million to complete the National Gateway. As one of the nation’s largest transportation projects, the National Gateway will create more than 50,000 jobs over a 30 year period by creating a more efficient intermodal network and expanding double-stack capabilities, which increases the amount of freight that can be transported on a single train. CSX is targeting a 2015 completion date for the project to coincide with the expansion of the Panama Canal, which is expected to bring more traffic through East Coast ports.