Three Rock County officials spent three days in Washington, D.C., at the National Association of Counties (NACo) and the March 4 National Rail Day on Capitol Hill.
Their trip garnered a $14.4 million federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program grant that will bring the Buffalo Ridge Regional Railroad up to today’s transportation safety standards.
Local commissioners Stan Williamson and Sherri Thompson, along with County Administrator Kyle Oldre, traveled as part of BRRRA with Nobles County Commissioner Gene Metz and Ellis & Eastern Railroad business development representative Dan Kippley.
The trip was the first for a Rock County delegation to personally travel to the nation’s capital to ask for help in funding the necessary railroad improvements.
“We need to be active in supporting Ellis & Eastern,” Thompson said. “And hopefully create opportunities for economic development and jobs locally along the way.”
The BRRRA is an eight-member authority between Nobles and Rock counties that owns the 41-mile short rail line between Manley in Rock County and Org (outside of Worthington) in Nobles County.
No local tax dollars are used in the railroad operations.
Instead, the BRRRA has leased the rail line.
In 2017 the BRRRA began leasing the rail line to Ellis & Eastern Railroad, owned by Sweetman Construction Co. of Sioux Falls.
E & E also operates the connecting rail line from Manley to Ellis, South Dakota, portions of which will be rehabilitated under the proposed grant improvements.
In three years E & E has increased traffic on the Minnesota portion of the line, but future growth is capped by the rail line’s poor condition, limiting the speed of trains and the number of cars that can be pulled in a day.
The recently acquired federal grant combined with the $19.5 million that E & E will contribute will improve the entire 65.5 miles of track in Minnesota and South Dakota.
Much of the track dates back to 1905 and is insufficient in handling the new industry standard 286,000-pound tanker cars.
Focus in Rock County will be on rebuilding six miles of line near Magnolia.
Many of the 11 bridges along the rail line consist of wooden pilings and contribute to limiting speeds to 10 mph or less.
News of the approved federal grant will shift improvement planning into gear this fall.
“This is great news for our little railroad,” said Clark Meyer, president of Sweetman Construction. “It’s very exciting.”
Meyer said the entire rehabilitation of the rail line will take five to seven years to complete.
Work will begin with the necessary environmental studies followed by more detailed engineering studies and plans.
Only conceptual plans and cost estimates were used for the grant application for the entire $33.9 million project, Meyer said.
At first, local leaders thought the federal Department of Transportation had already awarded the rail line improvement grants prior to their visit.
“We thought we were rejected but just getting ready for the next round (of funding),” Oldre said.
The group found out on March 4, their last day in Washington, D.C., that the BRRRA project received the entire requested amount.
The delegation happily shifted gears.
“It went from a ‘Help Us’ tour to a ‘Thank You for Your Help’ tour,” Oldre said.
The local delegation met with available U.S. representatives and senators and/or their staffs from both Minnesota and South Dakota.
They reiterated the need to preserve and improve the railroad infrastructure and the potential economic benefits the improved railroad will afford both counties and southwest Minnesota.
“It was nice to look them in the eye and tell them why we need this,” said Commissioner Williamson.
First District Congressman Jim Hagedorn verified for the local delegation that the BRRRA’s $14.4 million federal grant request was accepted in this year’s CRISI funding cycle.
“These rail infrastructure improvements will allow for faster, safer and more cost-effective transportation of products like ethanol and make our rural communities in Rock and Nobles counties more prosperous,” Hagedorn said in a press release.
More than $244 million was available in federal CRISI grants for fiscal year 2019.