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The Union Pacific Railroad crossing at Oak Street in Grand Island will be closed for two months, beginning on Wednesday.
The reason is an $8.9 million improvement.
"We're going to be adding some new rail line to either side of the main track," said Mark Davis, a Union Pacific (U.P.) spokesman. "This is to accommodate an ethanol plant in the area as well as Nebraska Central, some improvements there."
Nebraska Central Railroad has tracks into the Central Nebraska Regional Airport's industrial park.
Besides the Oak Street crossing, Davis said, the Pine Street crossing will be out of service during some of the upgrades as well.
"They will construct some switches, some crossovers those machines that let you go from one track to the other and then replace the gravel and the surfaces to those crossings," Davis said.
The Sycamore Street underpass will be unaffected during the construction and is recommended as the detour while Oak and Pine streets are shut down, he said.
The track expansion has an estimated cost of $6.3 million, while improvements to the Union Pacific signaling system and improved connections to the Nebraska Central tracks has a cost of $2.6 million, Davis said.
The additional track is needed to provide better service to industrial customers, U.P. spokesman James Barnes said.
"We have to build more siding to have enough track to pull off the main line, serve industry and get back on the main line," he said.
The Oak Street crossing is near the Grand Island YMCA and the headquarters office of the Central Plains Chapter of the American Red Cross.
The Oak Street crossing is expected to close at 8 a.m. Wednesday and remain closed through 5 p.m. June 16.
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