Class I Briefs: CN, CSX

The NCDOT, Union County and CSX held a groundbreaking last month for a project in Waxhaw, N.C., that includes siding and bridge construction as well as an at-grade crossing closure.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), CSX and Union County, N.C., have launched a rail safety improvement project in Waxhaw. Also, CN hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the Conneaut Creek Dredge Reclamation Facility in Ohio.

The NCDOT on Oct. 28 reported the groundbreaking for a rail safety improvement project in Waxhaw, part of Union County, which includes construction of 2,500 feet of additional siding track to meet “demands of more freight trains along the CSX corridor.” The new track, it said, will allow freight trains to pass one another more efficiently, relieving local roadway congestion. The project also includes the closure of an at-grade crossing at Helms Road and construction of a grade separation.

Additionally, a new bridge will be built on Helms Road over the tracks. NCDOT said the move will “improve safety by eliminating the potential for vehicle and train collisions and provide a reliable connection for vehicles crossing the rail corridor.”

A groundbreaking was held Oct. 26 for the city of Conneaut’s dredged material reclamation facility to help keep the waters of Conneaut Harbor clean and accessible for ships.

“Its construction was necessary after a law passed by the Ohio legislature went into effect, banning the open lake dumping of dredged material in an attempt to improve Lake Erie water quality,” according to an Oct. 27 Star Beacon report.

The facility will “process the dredging collected along the bottom of Conneaut Harbor rather than be dumped in Lake Erie potentially creating harmful algae blooms,” YourErie.com reported on Oct. 26.

“By taking that out of the lake and bringing it into an upland treatment facility like we’re constructing here, if all seven of the Great Lakes ports in Ohio do that, we can reduce algal blooms on Lake Erie by as much as 50%, which is huge,” said Jim Hockaday, Conneaut City Manager, according to the news site.

CN has committed to a $1 lease for 40 years for the property, and the city awarded Independence Excavating an $11.47 million contract for facility construction, which is slated to be completed in one year.

“We have obviously a huge footprint here; we have interest in the maritime trade and making sure that the vessels could come in loaded, so for it to work, we needed to come to the table and give part of our property for a dollar, so that’s how we made it work,” said CN Vice President of Strategy Jamie Lockwood, according to YourErie.com.

“I am really glad to see this project moving forward,” said Scudder Mackey, Chief of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Office of Coastal Management, according to the Star Beacon. “We started this in 2015, with the help of the Lake Erie Initiative. The funds, $4 million, were granted in 2018, a lot of the original engineering and design work was accomplished. In 2021, we provided an additional $1.9 million and now we have the ARPA funding, that’s sort of the capstone, and allows this whole project to move forward.”