CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state may sell a failed West Virginia intermodal hub, built for $32 million, for as little as $1 million — a prospect that drew objections Tuesday from legislators.
The Heartland Intermodal Gateway in Prichard, W.Va., opened in December 2015 with the goal of handling 15,000 containers a year, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. It closed earlier this year after handling as few as 20 containers a month. Norfolk Southern stopped serving the 100-acre facility, built on land donated by the railroad, on Oct. 1.
The state is seeking bids from real estate auction companies to sell the facility, Transportation Secretary Byrd White said, but legislators asked that any auction be delayed until after the legislature returns in January.
State Sen. Robert Plymale argued during a Tuesday meeting of oversight committees on transportation and infrastructure that the facility “has been so mishandled by the [state Department of Transportation] and the Port Authority. … I’ve never seen anything so mishandled.” The Port Authority had not met for two years before a new member was appointed in July, Plymale said, to create a quorum for a meeting to authorize sale of the facility. Another legislator expressed concern that the state would get “mere pennies on the dollar for what was invested.”
FWIW, I thought there was talk of an auto plant near Charleston.
What happened? Was business pursued and not found? Or was the state DOT (like many) better at building things than operating them?
John Rice,
NS didn’t even build it, the State of WV did, NS only served the facility under contract, which means if there was access to it by another rail carrier someone else could serve it, but unfortunately that isn’t the case.
The “metric” was the value of state contracts to build the place that I am sure went to politically connected contractors who laundered money back in the form of campaign donations
Place looks impressive on Google. Sure has the makings of a government boondoggle. I often hear of deals like this in the state I live in. Grand plans and dramatic photo ops of helping the more impoverished counties, but nothing ever really results from it.
I posted earlier that it seemed that the center was duplicating a large amount of existing capacity on the other side of the river. It is also farther up river from many of the industrial entities that could leverage it.
If NS didn’t want it anymore, what metric made WVA believe they could make something of it?