ERWIN, Tenn. — It could be September 2025 before CSX Transportation is able to resume operations on the badly damaged portions of its former Clinchfield Railroad route in Tennessee and North Carolina.
The railroad has listed September 2025 as the date by which emergency repairs will be completed in its latest permit request for repairs on the route devastated by Hurricane Helene in late September 2024.
WJHL-TV reports a recently granted permit in Tennessee allows the railroad to “borrow” rock from some locations along the bed of the Nolichucky River, the station reports. Earlier work involving use of rock from below the ordinary high-water mark of the river led to legal action by outdoors groups concerned that the removal of that rock could alter the river’s suitability for whitewater rafting, and orders from the Tennesseee Department of Environment and Conservation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to halt the practice [see “Tennessee agency orders CSX to stop …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 5, 2024].
The permit covers 2.5 miles of the Nolichucky Gorge in Tennessee (another 5 miles are in North Carolina) and allows “borrow of rock” in three locations, as well as removal of old track material and installation of 171 rail piles to form a protective wall.
The railroad has previously said it is working collaboratively to “ensure the recovery and restoration is conducted in a safe and responsible way,” and the area’s member of the Tennessee House of Representatives said she believes that to be the case.
“I know a lot of folks along the river had a lot of concern about the way things were going,” state Rep. Renea Jones, who was elected in November, told WJHL, “but I do think that the railroad is committed to building back and I think they’re committed to doing it responsibly.”
I’m no expert on respective state laws but assume the permit issue revolves around the fact that the railroad is asking to borrow material from a public owned riverbed or public owned lands. With rock or aggregate the closer the source the cheaper it is move to something heavy. So see why the railroad wants to go that route to rebuild. …
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But first, material has value and therefore I assume the respective states attribute a value to charge (say a tipping fee) and or outline benefit to the public in providing as such material will ensure freight access via railroad and thus relieve pressure from truck traffic on public roads (which can be quantified). The second part is a little more tricky in that the respective states have to balance public stakeholders in the lands or should say the citizens owns. We need the permitting process as the river provide recreational as well as economic benefit but we also need to get some sanity back in that process and end the free for all in litigation.
CSX should’ve abandoned the line when TDEC and its allies filed suit against the economic rebuild after the storm. If a railroad is needed so badly, and the government doesn’t like the way the railroad is doing the rebuild, the railroad should get out of the way of the government and let it build the railroad however it wants to.
Wonder if the same attention is being paid to the rebuilding of I-40
Unable to access the latest permit link
There is a series of at least five videos on You Tube that show the progress of rebuilding in the Nolichucky gorge. They are well-produced and make great use of drone shots. The work being done by outfits like R.J. Corman is astonishing.
MY, MY!!