FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Commonwealth of Kentucky is providing $7.5 million in grant funding for eight infrastructure projects on short lines, Gov. Andy Beshear announced on Thursday (Nov. 14).
R.J. Corman Railroad Group, Transkentucky Transportation Railroad, and the Paducah & Louisville Railway each received funding for two projects, while the Tennken Railroad Co. and Louisville & Indiana Railroad also were awarded grants. Funding comes from the newly created Kentucky Short Line Infrastructure Preservation Program, established by the General Assembly and approved by Beshear as part of the current biennial budget. Recipients will provide a 50% funding match.
“Maintaining a modern transportation infrastructure is critical to keep Kentucky’s economy moving,” Beshear said in a press release. “This investment in rail is essential to building a brighter future where opportunity and prosperity are possible for everyone.”
Grants include:
— $2 million to Paducah & Louisville for renewal of its Princeton Yard — replacing the switching ladders at the north and south ends with new turnouts; reconnecting tracks 9, 10, and 11; reestablishing track access through the maintenance-of-way shop building; and replacing ballast and other measure to improve drainage.
— $1.35 million to Paducah & Louisville to replace ties on approximately 20 miles of track, including its Elizabethtown Branch, Cecilia Siding, tank siding, and surrounding mainline track. Approximately 20,000 new crossties will be installed; the track will also be surfaced with a tamper and ballast regulator.
— $1 million to R.J. Corman Railroad Group for the Bluegrass Multimodal Freight Improvement project, a series of track and facilitiy upgrades on its Central Kentucky Lines. The funding will help match a federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement grant. Project groundbreaking was held earlier in November [see “R.J. Corman breaks ground on Kentucky infrastructure project,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 7, 2024].
— $484,950 to R.J. Corman for track rehabilitation on its Memphis Line, including 1,800 linear feet of rail upgrades, a 200-foot track extension, crossing renewal, 10,000 linear feet of surfacing, 1,400 crossties, and 500 tons of ballast.
— $875,548 to Transkentucky Transportation for a variety of infrastructure work including spot tie replacement in the Paris Yard; spot tie replacement, surfacing, and tamping between mileposts 115 and 136.4; surfacing and tamping between mileposts 158 and 1960; brush cutting; ditching a ravine where drainage issues occur; bridge deck tie replacement at milepost 115.8, and construction of a a new siding.
— $736,386 to Transkentucky Transportation to install four new tracks, estimated at 7,400 track feet, to accommodate new and potential business at the adjacent Bourbon/Nicholas County Industrial Park.
— $550,316 to the Louisville & Indiana to upgrade radios for the Fourteenth Street Bridge (Clagg Lift Span). The current system will be upgraded to fiber in conduit to improve system security and upgrade vessel traffic voice communications. The bridge itself was the subject of a federal CRISI grant for the railroad [see “More CRISI grants announced,” News Wire, Oct. 28, 2024].
— $500,100 to the Tennken Railroad to match a federal CRISI award. The project will expand on prior work by adding the replacement of 1.5 miles of worn and undersized rail to the scope of the original CRISI project.
