Virginia Tech in Blacksburg has been awarded $7,509,783 to establish a rail resilience research center, according to an Oct. 19 announcement from the Office of Congressman Morgan Griffith. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration awarded the grant to support research into safety and resiliency on the Strategic Rail Corridor Network, the announcement said.
The announcement said the center’s work will focus on STRACNET, a network of civil rail lines considered important to national defense. It said STRACNET runs through Virginia’s Ninth District, in the same corridor as a proposed passenger rail extension from Christiansburg to Bristol.
The project will construct two research facilities and develop a monitoring tool for track health maintenance, according to the announcement. The grant funding was made available through the Federal Railroad Administration’s Fiscal Year 2026 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Program, it said.
The announcement also said a STRACNET Defense Site is located at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant.
