Rail funding agreement approved

MOSES LAKE — A $2 million funding contract for the Segment 2 railroad expansion near the Grant County International Airport also requires maintenance work on the line through Moses Lake.

The new agreement between the state Department of Transportation and the Port of Moses Lake involves maintenance on six miles of track running through town through 2025, said Pat Boss, the Columbia Basin Railroad’s government affairs director, during this week’s TransCo meeting.

Columbia Basin Railroad owns the rail being discussed.

The track through town is about 100 years old and currently closed because of repair work needed with the trestle where it crosses at state Route 17. The trestle isn’t dangerous, but needs to be brought up to standard, he said.

They don’t want to have a situation where Segment 2 is built, but trains can’t be run through town.

The Segment 2 expansion brings track to Genie Industries, but not all the way to the SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers’ site.

The plan now is to complete Segment 2 around the airport and deal with the issues through town.

Construction starts next year.

The railroad would like to see the bypass route around town built further, he said. The bypass route isn’t yet funded.

The bypass route likely wasn’t funded first when the issue arose about four or five years ago because there was attention about Boeing considering Moses Lake and wanting rail.

There were also discussions about SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers needing rail.

“I think the thought was, if the port built Segment 2 and served shippers there first, it would help drive the process and create the inertia to build Segment 1,” he said.

Since then, the track through town started deteriorating, producing a new issue that wasn’t present at the time.

To complete local transportation projects, the community needs to prioritize what their projects are going to be and what they can realistically get the money for, Boss commented.