Heavy-equipment operators are tearing down trees and thick vegetation to clear room for Virgin Trains USA tracks along State Road 528 in Cocoa.

Nearby, thousands of gray concrete railroad ties lie stacked near State Road 524 and Industry Road for the future passenger rail line, which will extend westward to Orlando International Airport.

"The Brightline Trains, soon to be Virgin Trains, construction team is underway with Phase 2 construction connecting Central Florida to South Florida," the company announced Tuesday on its LinkedIn page.

"A massive undertaking, one of the nation’s largest privately funded infrastructure projects, includes the development of 170 miles of new track. This encompasses 225 million pounds of American steel and 490,000 ties," the post stated.

Formerly known as All Aboard Florida and Brightline, Virgin Trains is building a $4 billion rail network between Miami and Orlando. The privately owned company now commutes passengers between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

More:Our neighbors to the south might get a Virgin Trains stop. What about the Space Coast?

More:'We told you so' with All Aboard Florida/Virgin Trains USA

Virgin Trains will extend those tracks northward along the Florida East Coast Railway railbed to "the Cocoa curve" near the Interstate 95-Beachline interchange. From there, tracks will bend to the west and follow the Beachline to the Orlando airport.

Virgin Trains officials were unavailable for an interview Thursday, said Michael Hicks, a company spokesman. They hope to launch Orlando-to-Miami rail service by late-2022.

Tuesday's Virgin Trains LinkedIn post featured a photo showing thousands of concrete railroad ties staged for delivery in Fort Pierce.

Brevard County has lacked regular passenger train service since 1968. No announcements have been made regarding a potential Space Coast station.

Alongside the Cocoa land clearing, a Beachline paving project at the Industry Road interchange has triggered nighttime ramp closures this week, Florida's Turnpike spokeswoman Katie Mitzner said.

This work is part of a $19 million Florida’s Turnpike project that will upgrade Beachline asphalt, bridge joints and guardrails from west of State Road 520 to U.S. 1. Construction is scheduled for completion in the spring.

Back in May, Rusty Roberts, Virgin Trains vice president of government affairs, delivered a presentation to the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization.

Roberts told the Space Coast TPO crews will add a second parallel track along the west side of the FEC track. Passenger trains will use crossovers to pass slower-moving freight trains.

"Just to remind folks, this railway used to be double-tracked originally, when it was first built. So it's wide enough for two tracks — it's wide enough for more," Roberts said.

"One track was pulled up in the early '70s (after) passenger rail went out of business in '68. We're putting it back down," he said.

Passenger trains approaching from the south will follow the FEC railbed beneath the Beachline overpass, turn westward along the north side of the highway near the Cemex plant, and then switch over to the south side of the Beachline en route to Orlando, Roberts said.

Virgin Trains officials estimate that installing 170 miles of new track will require 2.35 million tons of granite and limestone, transported by 20,000 railcars. The undertaking will require roughly 2 million spikes and bolts.

In September, the company announced plans to build and operate rail service connecting Las Vegas with Southern California.

Neale is the South Brevard watchdog reporter at FLORIDA TODAY.

Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1