Five months after receiving a $14.4 million federal grant, officials with the Buffalo Ridge Railroad Authority (BRRRA) and Ellis & Eastern Railroad (E&E) will celebrate with an outdoor event at 2 p.m., Aug. 20 in Magnolia.
“It took a lot of cooperation to win the grant, and we would like to thank anyone who helped,” said Dan Kippley, E&E business development representative.
The event will serve as an opportunity to update the public on railroad improvements.
With many federal employees working from home due to the pandemic, progress on the rail work was expected to be slow, but Kippley said that hasn’t been the case.
“We are making good progress,” Kippley said.
Total cost to improve the 41-mile short line railroad from Manley in Rock County to Org (outside of Worthington) in Nobles County is $33.9 million and will take several years to complete.
E&E is contributing $19.5 million to improve the rail line owned by Rock and Nobles counties, and each entity has commissioners who served on the railroad authority.
E&E signed a 15-year lease with the BRRR in 2017 but with extensions could push the agreement out to 99 years.
E&E, owned by Sweetman Construction Co. of Sioux Falls, also operates the rail line from Manley to Ellis, South Dakota. The South Dakota portion of the railroad will also undergo extensive improvements.
Currently the poor condition of the rail on the South Dakota portion of the line prevents E&E from running railcars west of Luverne to Manley, but the line fulfills an industry need as a leased “parking lot” for empty rail cars.
“We get called constantly for car storage,” Kippley said.
Without the short line storage, the main line railroads would be limited in the transfer of loaded railcars to their destinations, Kippley said.
The BRRR connects to the Burlington Northern Sante Fe to the west and the Union Pacific to the east.
Currently hundreds of grain cars are parked on the rails west of Luverne.
“When the grain harvest starts in the fall, they will be all gone,” Kippley said.