SEDA-COG JRA, Graymont rail project supports clean coal

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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JOC research shows trucks have become very competitive when dealing with shipments between 800-1,200 miles.
Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad

The SEDA – Council of Governments (SEDA-COG) Joint Rail Authority (JRA), its private operator, Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad, and Graymont, a lime and limestone product supplier, are partnering on a rail project aimed at moving material that helps reduce power plan emissions.

 

SEDA-COG JRA says the project will help the Homer City Generating Station in Homer City, Pa., become one of the cleanest coal-burning plants in the nation. Power plant emissions can be greatly reduced through “scrubbers” that use lime for cleaning, and Graymont mines high-grade limestone from the Valentine formation, which will now be used in the process.

In order to ensure sufficient railroad track capacity for the substantial additional rail car shipments the Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad will handle, the SEDA-COG JRA is working with Graymont to construct new railroad track at the end of the railroad that serves the plant (the Pleasant Gap Industrial Track). Each lime train must be in blocks of 45 with railroad siding space for both a loaded and unloaded car set. While Graymont has rail sidings for its current business, it did not have enough railroad track space for the Homer City business.

A new rail yard will be built to tie in to the new tracks that Graymont will build on its property. An application for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Rail Freight Assistance Program was made to cost share in the $425,000 needed to build about 1,600 more feet of railroad track. An additional 2,800 feet of new railroad track and other related improvements will be built by Graymont on its lime plant property in Centre County.

This is a five-year project for Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad. The track project will be done in early October with first test loads slated to move later that same month. Rhinehart Railroad Construction Inc. of Maryland is contractor on the project with Jannotti Rail Consulting providing the design and oversight.

The rail cars of lime will move from the Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad to Norfolk Southern and then to the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad for final delivery to the power plant.

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