Railroad project feasibility study begins

Rail often critical for industrial development

MOSES LAKE — Albert Anderson is going through a hypothetical list of things that site selectors may be considering when they look at moving different companies into the area.

The Port of Moses Lake industrial development manager makes a long swishing check! in the air as he ticks off the assets Moses Lake already has available.

"It's like, do you have low-cost electrical power?" he asks. Check!

"Do you have access to an interstate highway system?" Check!

"Do you have rail?" Pause. "Uhhhh … well. Then you've got to either check the box, or not check the box."

When the site selector finishes looking at the variety of different sites, they look back and see which location has the largest number of check marks for the company's desires.

"Oftentimes, one of the critical things is transportation issues, and rail," Anderson said. "If you have a company like Boeing, or General Dynamics or some of the others that want to do serious manufacturing, they have to have rail, either to bring raw products in or to ship final products out. And if you don't have the rail, guess what? You're out."

The port is spearheading the efforts towards the Northern Columbia Basin Railroad Project to make sure that Moses Lake has at least one more check mark.

The proposed five-phase plan, created by the Port and a task force of area stakeholders, is estimated to cost $28 million.

"This is all just real preliminary, first blush stuff, just us sitting around kind of thinking about it," Anderson said.

The first phase of the proposed plan includes relocation of the existing line to bypass downtown Moses Lake.

Phase Two involves construction of a new line which would connect the existing line to the east side of Grant County International Airport.

Phase Three involves rehabilitation of the existing line, connecting the Columbia Basin Railroad to the airport.

Phase Four involves abandonment of the existing Columbia Basin Railroad spur line located in downtown Moses Lake.

"The port will not support abandonment of this line until there is an established line on Phase One," Anderson said, noting that the port has received concerned comments regarding the abandonment. "The port does not decide if a railroad track is abandoned. We have nothing to do with that process. That's between the railroad, the users and the federal railroad administration."

Phase Five would involve construction of a new line, which would connect the Phase Two northern terminus to the Burlington Northern main line near Soap Lake.

"Phase Five is kind of interesting in many ways, because Phase One, Two and Three are real easy for us to justify, because we've worked with companies trying to establish industries out in this area, so we know there's an interest," Anderson said. He noted that over half of the industrial property in Moses Lake is located on Wheeler Road or at the port. "When we talk about industrial growth, or growth in Moses Lake in general, population or otherwise, cultural, it really has to be tied to industrial growth. Where is that industrial growth going to be? It's going to be either in Wheeler or at the airport."

As such, it makes sense to refurbish and establish new rail out to the primary industrial property, Anderson said.

Phase Five travels a long way and appears to be easy construction, but the port is not completely convinced it is a good idea, Anderson said.

"There could be some benefits to our existing shippers," he said, noting that the Quincy intermodal site could benefit, offering more reason for the Burlington Northern mainline to stop, pick up cars and possibly offer a better freight rate if cars presently going south to Connell and Pasco head north and into an assembly yard. "One thing we've found out is, just because you park a car next to the Burlington Northern mainline doesn't mean that they're going to stop and pick it up. You have to have an agreement with them, and they have to have some incentive to stop and pick the cars up."

A preliminary study of the proposed plan by the Washington State Department of Transportation Rail Office, costing $200,000 and funded with $2 million appropriations offered by the Washington State Legislature, begins this month.

The scope of work for the feasibility study includes identifying which phases are most feasible, providing cost estimates, identifying environmental fatal flaws and other potential roadblocks, and specification of timelines and procedures to implement each phase. Anderson asserted that the study is just to get to the basics of the most likely location and a better refinement of the cost.

Field work will be done in August and September, and the sequence of report writing will take place in October and November, Anderson estimated.

The final report is due to the legislators by Dec. 1 to give them a better idea of what the project is and what it can do, Anderson said, so that they would be ready to fund more of the project at the next legislative session.

If and when the Phase Four abandonment takes place is a separate issue, Anderson added, and he noted that the port does not own any railroad track, established route or any right of way.

"The reason that we are involved as a port district is that there's really no better entity to undertake this," he said, noting that a lot of the activity in the project would take place outside of the city, and the railroad does not have enough financial incentive for the project. "When you look at the big picture, that's really what port districts are supposed to do — contemplate and build infrastructure for the community."