USDOT’s Pete Buttigieg helps kick off $1.1 billion passenger rail project in Raleigh
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will take part in a groundbreaking ceremony in North Raleigh on Monday for a bridge that will carry Durant Road over a railroad line.
The bridge is part of a $1.3 billion project to provide passenger service between downtown Raleigh and Wake Forest by 2030. It’s the first leg of what state and federal officials say will be a direct high-speed rail connection between Raleigh; Richmond, Virginia, and the Northeast.
Buttigieg came to Raleigh last fall to announce nearly $1.1 billion in federal support for the project. He’s back four months before the presidential election to tout one of the signature achievements of the Biden administration: the 2021 infrastructure law that provides $1 trillion for roads, bridges, railroads and ports across the country.
It’s the start of a national tour for Buttigieg to highlight federal infrastructure spending. He’ll be in Winston-Salem on Tuesday to see the Northern Beltway and take part in a groundbreaking for the Salem Parkway multi-use path. He’ll then return to Durham, which just received a $12 million federal grant to improve 33 intersections downtown.
Gov. Roy Cooper, who leaves office in January after two terms, will join Buttigieg in Raleigh and Winston-Salem.
The Raleigh-to-Richmond rail project will follow existing rail corridor known as the S-line that in North Carolina is still used by a couple of slow-moving freight trains a day. The N.C. Department of Transportation will replace the tracks, build new stations and eliminate crossings at Durant and New Hope Church roads in Raleigh and Rogers Road in Wake Forest.
When this first leg of the project is done, people will be able to take Amtrak’s Piedmont trains from a new station in Wake Forest through Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro to Charlotte.
The nearly $1.1 billion for the S-line is the largest single federal grant NCDOT has ever received. NCDOT and Amtrak will provide a combined 20% match, bringing the total to more than $1.3 billion.
