NATCHEZ — The railroad line from Brookhaven to the Natchez-Adams County Port is expected to have vastly improved operational capacity by July, the project’s manager said.

Edward Landreth is project manager for work being done on the Natchez Railway that is funded by a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Grant.

The grant is sponsored by the City of Natchez.

Landreth said the city is a conduit for the funding in the form of a $10 million grant the city received Tuesday and $3.3 million is being funded by railway owner Natchez Railway Inc.

“There is no cost to taxpayers on the local level, but we couldn’t have done it without their support,” Landreth said. “It’s a win-win for everybody.”

The improvements across the approximate 65-mile rail line involve four separate projects: rehabilitation and upgrades of timber bridges, structural upgrades of steel bridges, replacement of a failed culverts and safety improvements at grade-crossings.

“The timber is about 80 percent,” Landreth said, “the steel bridges are about 20 percent, the culvert is 100 percent, and we just tipped off the engineering required to install the warning signs at grade crossings, and that’s going to take a while because of the engineering. It’s in its infancy.”

The rail line has approximately 23 timber bridges and a number of steel truss bridges with multiple spans, such as the one over the Homochitto River with four 100-foot spans, Landreth said.

The improvements to the bridges would increase the railway’s allowable weight capacity, Landreth said. The rail line runs 263,000-pound, gross-weight rail cars, but improvements would allow them to accommodate cars of up to 286,000- and 315,000-pound gross-weights, the latter coming with some restrictions, Landreth said.

“When we get done with this project, we’ll be able to handle the 286 and 315 cars, so it will have the capacity to handle the future,” Landreth said. “The bridges will be able to handle whatever the port can unload and whatever we can send their way.”

Landreth said the timber bridges will likely be completed by late March and the steel bridgework could be completed by July. He said the safety measures for crossings would take longer due to time needed to seek concurrence with governing leaders across the three counties the rail line spans.

Landreth said work is running ahead of schedule and that final completion could come by the end of 2019. Landreth said the grant has an expiration date of 2021.

The grant is part of a U.S. Department of Transportation discretionary grant.