The expansion will add 48 full-time employees at the rail yard in Swatara Township and could generate as many as 400 jobs in the community after the expansion is completed in 2014, Norfolk Southern spokesman Dave Pidgeon said.

The company plans to add four loading and unloading rail spurs and four support lines at the facility, as well as 406 trailer spaces in its staging areas, he said. The expansion will add about 50 percent to the rail yard's lift capacity, meaning its cranes will load and unload nearly 350,000 intermodal boxes between trains and trucks each year, he said.

Norfolk Southern needs the expansion to keep up with the rapid growth of intermodal freight shipping across the country, he said. The company also is expanding its Harrisburg intermodal facility and adding about 50 other jobs to the midstate.

The yard's redesign also will rework truck entrances to reduce congestion on area roadways, Pidgeon said.

The project will be put out for bids and designs next year, with construction beginning in 2013, he said. The railroad is applying for a $22 million federal grant and will use $7 million in state grants to fund part of the project.

Norfolk Southern is holding a public hearing on the project from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8 at the Chambers Hill Fire Company, 6400 Chambers Hill Road.

The railroad trades its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol NSC.