A state agency has given a
green signal to a $12.3-million expansion of a Norfolk Southern rail yard in
South Toledo, Ohio, a project intended to boost the region’s capacity for
handling intermodal freight and generate hundreds of transportation-sector jobs,
the Toledo Blade reports.
Job creation has become a
key argument for rail advocates, including Ohio Secretary of Transportation
Jolene Molitoris, who got their chance July 12 at the Dayton Rotary Club to
rebut an earlier presentation by state Sen. Jon Husted, the Dayton Daily News
reported.
On July 12, the G Street
Underpass project in Merced, Calif., which will be the only below grade
railroad crossing in the city, will start in earnest, when crews begin the prep
work needed to create an undercrossing beneath the BNSF tracks, the Sacramento
Bee reports. The $18-million project will take 18 months to complete.
A $293-million investment
announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood means that residents in
dozens of communities nationwide will soon enjoy major transit improvements, including
new streetcars, buses and transit facilities.
The long-running commercial
rail saga in North Charleston, S.C., has taken another turn, and a resolution
could finally be in sight, the South Carolina Business Journal reports. The
Business Journal has learned that the city has drafted a memorandum of
understanding with development firm Shipyard Creek Associates and railroad
operator CSX Transportation that, if approved by City Council, would eliminate
rail service to the former Navy base from the north in favor of a new southern
line.
City Council will be
presented with the memorandum during its 7 p.m. meeting July 8.
A southern line would
satisfy a 2002 memorandum of understanding penned by North Charleston and the
S.C. State Ports Authority in which the SPA agreed to "use rail access
exclusively from the south end of the property." That document has been a
source of contention among city leaders, who backed the agreement, and state
officials, who claim the memorandum didn’t pertain to them.
Under the latest proposal,
CSXT would abandon rights of way from a to-be-determined point between Clement
Avenue and Viaduct Road northward to just past the intersection at Braddock
Road. In return, North Charleston would assist CSXT in acquiring city-owned
property making up the new route. North Charleston would also pay CSXT between
$3 million and $5 million in tax-increment financing revenue for the old rights
of way.
Shipyard Creek Associates,
meanwhile, would move ahead with construction of an intermodal facility on its
Macalloy property, a project it’s been pitching for years. That Macalloy site
is located practically adjacent to the container terminal being constructed by
the State Ports Authority on the former Navy base and would serve as a rail
yard for CSXT.
In the past, officials from
the state and CSXT’s chief rival, Norfolk Southern, have claimed that such an
arrangement would be unfair. Those officials have trumpeted the need for dual
access to the port terminal and said that Norfolk Southern would be at
competitive disadvantage if it had to pay CSX for access to its tracks.
The threat of northern rail
access loomed, but North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey is now close to
vanquishing that possibility. He said that the proposed memorandum provides
dual access.
"Is it equal dual access?"
Summey said. "I don’t know if that’s available at any port."
The new plan relies heavily
on federal grant financing and the "existence of sufficient property tax
revenues to permit bonding against city TIF districts."
Summey said that a series
of federal grants over a period of several years would be needed to pay for the
project and that the parties involved will move ahead in seeking those funds if
the memorandum of understanding is approved.
Starting July 12, nearly
two-dozen weekday trains on the Metra BNSF Line between Chicago and Aurora, Ill.,
will see minor schedule changes to accommodate a major construction project
and/or to make the schedules more reliable. In most cases, the trains will have
slightly later or, in a few instances, slightly earlier departure times from
some or all stations. Some of the changes will result in a slightly longer
overall trip, but in other cases the total run time will not be affected.
Ingleside Civic League
president Phillip Hawkins points to a rut with his shoe along the light rail
tracks that run in front of his home. He’s less than thrilled his neighborhood
is about to be inconvenienced again, Norfolk, Va.’s WAVY reports. Starting July
6, crews will rip out the light rail crossing at Ingleside and Mississippi and
replace it. The same will happen at the Bristol and Curlew Dr crossing.
WAVY
learned the concrete panels settled causing the tracks to move.
BNSF has invested some time
and money on the Fairview Avenue crossing in Downers Grove, Ill.,, but some
residents claim there has not been an improvement, according to the Downers Grove Reporter.
Washington, D.C., Metro’s
Board of Directors approved a $5-billion, six-year capital spending plan June
24 as part of its FY2011 capital budget, which was made possible as a result of
increased contributions from the jurisdictions that fund Metro, federal
stimulus dollars provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
and dedicated federal and local matching funds provided by the Passenger Rail
Investment and Improvement Act of 2008.
The Metropolitan Council awarded
the first heavy construction contract for the Central Corridor light rail
transit Project to Walsh Construction to build the seven-mile St. Paul segment
of the line. Walsh’s $205.1-million award includes betterment work valued at
$10.4 million that was requested by, and will be paid for, by cooperating
agencies and utilities.
The county has received
bids from 14 architectural firms on the $1.2-million downtown transit depot
that officials hope is a hub for Greyhound bus and Amtrak railway services in
the next few years, local media report. County staff members will spend the next couple of weeks
reviewing the projects and ranking the top four or five candidates before
presenting them to the commission, said Judy Halaas, county purchasing
technical coordinator.
TriMet in Portland, Ore.,
has begun work to improve safety, security and fare compliance at the Gresham
Central MAX station. Over the next two months, crews will be installing
railing, lighting and signage around the platforms to improve visibility, make
the platform a fare zone and help make the overall environment safer. With the
station platform as a fare zone, passengers will be required to have valid fare
before boarding, making it easier to check fares at the station.
America’s growing economy
moves more and more freight on rails and Ohio is increasingly one of the
critical links to keep those goods rolling. Already nearing completion of its
Heartland Corridor between Chicago, Columbus and the Port of Norfolk, Va.,
Norfolk Southern is extending the corridor’s reach to Cincinnati.
Services that impact the
lives of many are often the subject of public scrutiny, as they well should be,
the Mid-Region Council of Governments said in a press release. However, it’s
also important to separate fact from fiction. And, since you, the taxpayer are
helping fund this service, we think it’s your right to know the truth.
Pennsylvania granted $1 million to build a solar-power field on part of a Superfund site at the Paoli rail yard, as part of a plan for a new transportation facility, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Work to repair the
concrete exterior of the railroad bridge in downtown Fredericksburg, Va., will
begin next month, local media report. The Virginia Railway Express Operations
Board picked the lowest bidder among three competing construction firms to
perform the work.
Vietnamese legislators rejected a proposed bullet train over its $56 billion cost – the assembly’s first rejection of a major proposal submitted by the all-powerful Communist government, the Associated Press reports.
The first tentative steps
toward building an ore haul railway to the James Bay Lowlands began this past
winter, Northern Ontario Business reports. Helicopters moved drills into place
as geologists tested frozen riverbanks north of Nakina, taking core samples to
determine where bridges can be built to haul ore from a chromite open pit in
the Far North’s ‘Ring of Fire’ exploration camp.
California, the top
recipient of funds from President Barack Obama’s high-speed rail program,
expects to issue a tender for a bullet-train line linking Los Angeles and San
Francisco by late 2011, BusinessWeek reported.
Amtrak is using $115
million in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to improve
tracks, buildings and control systems in Chicago this construction season, as
part of a $1-billion construction program to fund capital projects designed to
rebuild critical infrastructure.
