Tuesday midday rail news:
S.C. Ports Authority seeks funds to improve rail access to Port of Charleston
The South Carolina Ports Authority is seeking $550 million in funding from state legislators to improve rail and barge access to the Port of Charleston, the only major East Coast port without near-dock rail access. The State newspaper reports the project, which would be funded by state-issued debt to be paid back from the state general fund, would include a $400 million intermodal facility at the former Charleston Navy base and $150 million to expand terminals, allowing barges to ferry cargo between the Wando Welch and Hugh K. Leatherman terminals. The project would take traffic from 500,000 containers off local roads, S.C. Ports President and CEO Jim Newsome said.
With funds released, construction to begin on Eastern Oregon transload facility
Officials in Malheur County, Ore., expect to begin construction of a new transload facility soon, four years after funding was approved by the state legislature. The Bend Bulletin reports the Oregon Transportation Commission approved the release of $26 million in construction money for the Treasure Valley Reload Center in late January. The facility is intended to allow local onion producers to truck their product to the location in Nyssa, Ore., where it will be transferred to railcars for shipment from the site served by Union Pacific. A 60,000-square-foot warehouse has been proposed by county officials. The facility near the Oregon-Idaho state line, about a dozen miles south of Ontario, Ore., could be completed by spring 2022, in time for next year’s onion crop.
Stockton Terminal & Eastern receives first California short line grant
The Stockton Terminal & Eastern has received a $1.8 million grant from the California Transportation Commission to replace or repair more than 4 miles of track, while parent company OmniTRAX says is the first such award under the state’s Short-Line Railroad Improvement Program. The Stockton Intermodal Transload and Alternative Fuel project will modernize railroad infrastructure to handle the influx of alternative diesel fuels that comply with the state’s low-carbon fuel standards. It will resurface and replace ties and deteriorating 100-year-old rail, repair degraded switches, and repair six grade crossings. The grant covers half the cost of the project, with OmniTRAX providing the other half. OmniTRAX president Sergio Sabatini said the grant “will greatly enhance our operational efficiency and rail operations in Stockton and preserve and improve transload capacity to meet increased in demand. The project will also significantly reduce costs, emissions and truck travel in the region.”
