Rebuilding Chester Branch a boon to Morris County, N.J., businesses

February 14, 2001 A pair of businesses that flank the Chester Branch railroad have said they plan to take advantage of the rail line that is being rebuilt with federal stimulus funding, the Daily Record reports.

County Concrete, which
operates a large sand and cement operation in the Kenvil section of Roxbury adjacent
to the Chester Branch, plans to build a siding so it can begin to ship material
to its other locations, and possibly new customers, by rail.

Kuiken Brothers, a Bergen
County-based lumber retailer that operates a showroom on Route 10 in Succasunna,
is planning to utilize the rebuilt line to ship and receive materials at its
lumberyard alongside the rail line.

Morris County Freeholder
Director Gene Feyl said that was the result the county intended when it applied
last year for nearly $9 million in federal stimulus funds made available by the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Besides giving Holland
Manufacturing, the Randolph insulation products maker that sold the rail line
to the county in the spring, the opportunity to stay in New Jersey, Feyl said
the freeholders felt that rebuilding the line would offer other large businesses
access to the rail line.

Holland’s owners had told
the freeholders it would relocate after 50 years in Randolph unless the line could
be repaired. The company receives bulk shipments of material by rail, such as
paper in rolls directly from mills, and a glue-like material that is shipped
hot from Texas. That material cannot be shipped by truck economically, they
said.

The $5.1-million rail
reconstruction job is the largest of the county’s stimulus projects. The work is
being done by Railroad Construction Co. of Paterson and is scheduled to be
completed by the end of the year.

The other projects were
for road paving and intersection work. The original five projects are nearly
complete, and six others, added to the list because other bids came in below
estimates, have recently been approved for funding. Feyl said the road work
includes repairs to storm sewers, sidewalks and drainage systems that address
many longstanding problems and can add cost to repairs.

Feyl said the rebuilt
Chester Branch could enable a former manufacturing site on Dell Avenue in Roxbury
to be reactivated because of the rail access, and even the Hercules Industries
site, shuttered and off limits since 1996, could be made more attractive by the
active rail line.

Morris County
governments, schools and nonprofit agencies applied for $79 million in stimulus
funds last year. The funds have helped open new health clinics, buy computer
equipment for libraries, hire teachers at public and Head Start schools,
support energy efficiency programs for the county, public schools and public
housing authorities and add beds to help agencies that serve the county’s growing
homeless population get more people off the streets nightly.

The 11th Congressional
District, represented by Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen of Harding, received $239.7
million between February 2009 and June, according to Recovery.gov, the federal
government’s Website that tracks stimulus spending.

The Fifth Congressional
District, represented by Rep Rodney Frelinghuysen of Harding, received $137.1 million
in that time frame. Republicans Frelinghuysen and Garrett voted against the
federal stimulus bill.

On Sept. 2, the
construction site near County Concrete at First Street in Roxbury saw two crews
yards apart engaged in different activities. The site was marked by piles of
old rails and ties that had been removed, stacks of new ties banded together, a
pile of spike plates and piles of rock and sand — and lots of heavy equipment.

Elio Gregorat, project
manager for the engineering firm overseeing the work, Christopher P. Statile of
Oakland, said one crew was installing an at-grade crossing at the place the
County Concrete siding will be built. The company will use as many of the old
ties and rails as it can, he said.

The crossings, like the
one built in one day last week at First Street, start with a precast concrete form
in which the rail, steel supports and rubber buffers will be installed, he
said.

The new design of the
crossing will eliminate that constant thump heard when cars drive across railroad
tracks, Gregorat said. The rails are actually recessed below the rubber bumper,
he said.

They will replace all the
rails, ties and ballast along the four-mile route, he said. The replacement
rail is of a much heavier grade to be able to handle the weight of modern rail
engines and cars, he said. The rails are supported by a thick layer of sand, rocks
and ballast.

Workers laying the rail
lock one side in place, Gregorat said, and then measure the distance to the spot
across the tie where the second rail must be secured. They tighten it down so
that a train can pass, he said, but the final installation is done by a rail-laying
machine that spikes the rail to the tie and fills the gaps with stone, he said.

The result will be a safe
railroad track, he said.

This week the crews
should begin work north of Route 10. The last piece to be done will be at Horseshoe
Lake, a Roxbury recreation facility.

Stephen Friedland, owner
of the Morristown & Erie Railway that operates on the Chester Branch under an
agreement with Morris County, said the reconstruction will produce a
"safer and more efficient" rail line.

The sidings at County
Concrete and Kuiken, and one at Holland Manufacturing, where engines will be
able to turn around will allow the engines to pull their cars, which is a safer
operation mode than pushing them, he said.

Ryan Mulkeen, marketing manager
for Kuiken Bros., said the company bought the old Wickes lumberyard south of
Route 10 six years ago. The site has been vacant for years after a fire, he
said.

The site has a railroad
siding, which is a key feature, Mulkeen said, so the reconstruction of the Chester
Branch, while important for the future use of the site, was not a factor in its
purchase.

The company plans to
support its nine locations from Roxbury by rail. It will be the company’s fifth
lumber yard site with rail access, he said. It will allow bulk shipments from
mills, a key cost factor, Mulkeen said.

The company has an open showroom
facing the highway. Getting the lumber yard behind it open will help that
facility, he said. The site is easily reached by Routes 80, 46 and 10, he said.
Once open, the site will employee sales people, management both in the showroom
and lumberyard, yard workers and customer service personnel in both operations.

John Crimi, president of
County Concrete, said when the company bought the Kenvil plant in 1978, the
site had a disused rail siding.

"Fifty years ago
everything in the business was shipped by train," he said.

Adding a siding at Kenvil
would allow the company to ship its sand and concrete products by rail to other
company sites like the one in Morristown, Crimi said. It could also receive
shipments, he said.

Adding rail service might
also give the company a chance to add customers along the rail line that connects
with the network of rail in the region, he said.

The use of rail could
also reduce the use of trucks in and out of the plant and reduce the facility’s
carbon footprint, Crimi said.

"This is a good
project," he said of the rail line reconstruction. "We thought we’d
give it a try."