Rep. Jordan tours Fritz-Rumer Cooke Co. project

Rep. Jordan, holding the blue remote, drops track ballast to form the trackbed.

NRC

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) joined National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association (NRC) member Fritz-Rumer Cooke Co., Inc., for a tour of its track project at Heritage Cooperative on October 30.

Fritz Rumer Cooke Project Engineer Gordon Webster gave an overview of the company and its current operations. Webster led a tour of Fritz-Rumer Cooke’s project at Heritage Cooperative, a member-owned cooperative founded in 2009, which serves more than 3,500 farmer members and more than 4,000 rural and urban customers. Fritz-Rumer Cooke designed and is currently constructing 11,457 feet of track to serve the new facility. The majority of the track consists of a 1.24-mile-long loop track to handle 90-car unit trains and is one of only two such loop tracks in the state of Ohio at an agricultural complex. The track design avoided all wetlands on the project and includes a wye connection with CSX’s mainline.

Heritage Cooperative broke ground May 14, 2014, for the Ag Campus and Research Farm. This facility is being built on a 277-acre plot and will include an express unit grain terminal; a 30,000 ton dry fertilizer warehouse and a 10,000-ton liquid UAN (nitrogen fertilizer) storage with 24/7 distribution.

“I always say that the Fourth District grows things and makes things,” said the Rep. Jordan. “Fritz-Rumer Cooke has played a big part in that, serving as an employer and manufacturer in Ohio for more than 100 years and now employing folks in our district to continue improving and advancing the railroad industry. I’m proud of the work they are doing in Marysville and look forward to seeing the project at its completion.”