PIERRE, S.D. — The South Dakota Railroad Board will provide $12.6 million for upgrades to rail service at the state’s largest soybeen processing plant.
The South Dakota Searchlight reports that the funds, in the form of a loan to the Davison Regional Rail Authority, will be used to build 6.2 miles of rail line, 22 industrial turnouts and two mainline turnouts for the High Plains Processing facility near Mitchell, S.D. With the project, the facility expects to process 147 railcars a week and receive unit trains once or twice a month. The project application says it will keep 30,000 long-haul trucks off the road. The board approved the request at a meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 20.
The $504 million plant, projected to open in October 2025, is expected to process 35 million bushels of soybeans annually and employ 85 people. The Davison County Commission has provided $21 million in financing through a deal the company will pay back through property taxes; the state Office of Economic Development has also provided $6.7 million in funding.
The loan, which will be guaranteed by High Plains, is the largest issued by the State Rail Trust Fund, Transportation Secretary Joel Jundt told the Searchlight. The previous high was $7 million in 2007.
Actually, the death of the MILW kept the CNW line to Rapid City alive as they paralleled each other across the state for so many miles.
Actually, it’s impossible to really know. The primary commodity handled was (and still is) the bentonite from Northeast Wyoming. C&NW wanted to get rid of the PRC (Pierre-Rapid City) line due to the unstable Pierre Shale, and route the bentonite on the Cowboy Line across Northern Nebraska. The MILW line – especially West River – had insufficient traffic to warrant keeping the line and it would have been unlikely for C&NW to give the MILW the bentonite. South Dakota simply wanted to keep an east-west railroad from border to border, but the West River portion of the MILW was so brittle, it’s unlikely the state would have invested in it like they did with the DM&E knowing the MILW line wouldn’t have the traffic to support itself long term.
Kinda seems like use of rail for such an important project was an afterthought. Surprised that the unidentified rail carrier to serve this mega-plant has not posted this positive activity. Almost like serving unit trains is a ho-hum exercise.
This article explains it better:
https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/local/newly-formed-rail-authority-gives-sign-off-to-sponsor-18-million-loan-for-high-plains-soybean-facility
BNSF is the intended carrier. The Davison Regional Rail Authority is a new entity created simply to apply for additional government loans to complete the rail portion of the project. And, the loan is being guaranteed by High Plains, the company building the plant. In other words, it’s just a formality to obtain all the necessary funding.
Appears to be on the BNSF south of Mitchell along SD SR37 at 257th St; another dividend of the 1981 agreement between then-Governor Janklow and BN’s Dick Grayson for BN to operate the Milwaukee Road lines the State had acquired in 1980 using funds from a sales tax approved for the purpose by South Dakota voters, that as I recall included funds for track rehabilitation, which BN carried out. BNSF later purchased the lines outright. Watco’s Ringneck & Western Railroad comes into Mitchell from the west interchanging with BNSF at Mitchell.
Well, South Dakota had little choice. While many decried the abandonment of the Milwaukee’s Pacific Extension as creating a “monopoly” for Burlington Northern in Montana and much of Washington, the Milwaukee was pretty much similarly a monopoly in South Dakota, the only state where the Milwaukee operated the most railroad mileage. Abandoning most of the Milwaukee Road Pacific Extension west of Terry, Montana with its horrible operating profile and its circuitous branch lines was overall of little consequence. But preserving the South Dakota trackage and connecting it to Burlington Northern’s superior route structure at Terry, Willmar, Sioux Falls and Sioux City spawned the scores of ag-related unit-train facilities now in service throughout East River South Dakota.