WASHINGTON (AP) - CSX Corp. says double-stacked trains can now run through the Virginia Avenue Tunnel in Washington, D.C.
The event marks the halfway point in a $168 million project to improve freight transportation between mid-Atlantic seaports and the Midwest.
The Jacksonville, Florida-based company says in a statement that the first train passed through the new southern tunnel Friday morning.
CSX says it expects to complete the northern tunnel in mid-2018.
The project replaces a 112-year-old, single-track tunnel with a pair of tunnels big enough for trains hauling double-stacked shipping containers.
CSX says the Virginia Avenue Tunnel is the last of 61 clearance projects it began in 2008 under a public-private partnership called the National Gateway Initiative.
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