Freight trains are once again able to reach International Paper’s Vicksburg Mill.

Darrell Thompson, the general manager of Vicksburg Southern Railroad, which operates the north-south line from Kansas City Southern Railway’s main line to the Mississippi 3 plant, said the tracks were reopened Saturday, a week ahead of schedule.

The track fell Dec. 12 after a bridge over the the Skillikalia Bayou, near U.S. 61 North and Mississippi 3, caught fire and burned for hours, dumping freight cars into the water. The 30 cars were carrying huge rolls of paper.

No one was injured in the initial derailment or fire, but International Paper was without use of the rail, a primary mode of product transportation.

The track is leased to VSR by KCS and is used only by IP to get paper and material to and from the mill.

Completion of the track had been scheduled for Jan. 3, Thompson said.

“We were able to get materials sooner than was expected,” he said, “and our crew worked very hard, which helped speed up the process.”

On Monday, work crews were making final adjustments to the bridges.

While the bridge was out, IP was forced to rely on 18-wheelers for transportation of its goods.

“There was a little delay at first,” IP spokesman Amy Sawyer said, “but we were able to get on schedule and we switched back to the trains without a problem.”

Neither IP nor VSR would address how much money had been spent on the repairs or how much money was lost as a result of the fire.

International Paper, which has been operating in Warren County since 1967, employs nearly 300 people in the plant that makes linear board.