Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad wants to build a second bridge in northern Idaho to handle an expected increase in traffic that includes coal and oil trains.
Railway spokesman Gus Melonas tells The Spokesman-Review in a story on Wednesday that the one bridge at Sandpoint restricts train traffic.
The railway wants to build another bridge about 50 feet west of the existing bridge that crosses Lake Pend Oreille where it meets the Pend Oreille River.
The railway says the bridge would extend about 4,800 feet across the water on piers sunk up to 150 feet into the lake bed.
The railway will need approval from federal and state agencies to build the bridge.
Melonas says the railway would like to build the bridge by 2018.