BNSF Railway Co. has started work on a $50 million project in North Idaho that will add 10 miles of double track that will ease congestion between Hauser and Athol, says Gus Melonas, a Seattle-based spokesman for the Fort Worth, Texas-based freight railroad network.

The double-track section will be constructed by connecting intermittent parallel tracks called sidings to create a second rail line along the current main line. 

“It’s like adding an extra lane on a freeway,” Melonas says 

The main line in the project area is used by more than 60 trains that travel daily through a major bottleneck in the railroad network, he says.

“It’s a tight section where trains are slowed and often stopped,” Melonas says.

Double track gives dispatchers options to keep trains flowing, he says. During maintenance operations, double track enables one line to stay open while the other is serviced.

Melonas says grading work has started on the project, which will be finished before winter.

About 150 BNSF employees will work on the new section of double track.

The project also will add a track at the Hauser fueling depot that will enable trains to be serviced on two tracks simultaneously, he says.

Melonas says the double-track project is a priority for BNSF because of the volume of railroad traffic.

BNSF is investing $175 million in maintenance projects on main line routes throughout Washington state this year, including replacing some tracks and ties in the Spokane area, Melonas says.

“In the past three years, we’ve made track and structural improvements across bridges in Spokane,” he says.