Port secures railroad funding, military maneuvers in 2017
File photo U.S. soldiers as they assault the main terminal of the Grant County International Airport in August as part of operation Mobility Guardian.
MOSES LAKE — Folks at the Port of Moses Lake can soon start singing “I’ve been working on the railroad.”
In 2017, the Port secured the $30.3 million in funding needed to complete the Northern Columbia Basin Railroad Project, a link that will connect the Port of Moses Lake to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad hub in Wheeler.
“Large scale transportation like rail is more efficient than trucking,” said Jeffrey Bishop, the port’s executive director. “Not having rail precludes you from recruiting a whole class of industries.”
The proposed railroad extension will allow port clients and industrial customers to ship goods in and out by rail. While it is proving more expensive to acquire land in the rail corridor between Wheeler and Moses Lake, the port is also considering for the future another rail line that would link to the Union Pacific in Ephrata.
The port was also “invaded” in August as U.S. and allied paratroopers “seized” Grant County International Airport from a group of “terrorists” as part of Mobility Guardian, a military exercise intended to test the ability of American and international forces to fight and work together.
“We’re practicing procedures and processes, how each nation’s tactics, techniques and procedures will work with each other. That’s about it, really,” said Fight Sgt. Keith Voysey of the UK’s Royal Air Force.
A current training site for Air Force C-17 pilots, port officials hope the exercise will further show the Port of Moses Lake’s usefulness for military training.