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V&M Star to advance $2M for rail lines
YOUNGSTOWN
V&M Star is advancing more than $2 million to the city to pay Norfolk Southern railroad to relocate rail lines as part of the manufacturing company’s $650 million expansion project.
When the railroad company finishes the $2,064,000 relocation project, the city will receive federal stimulus money to reimburse V&M, said city Finance Director David Bozanich, a member of the board of control. The board approved the V&M reimbursement agreement Thursday.
The federal government awarded about $18 million to the city in March 2009 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the federal stimulus fund, for rail improvements V&M wanted for its expansion project on the Youngstown-Girard line.
Meanwhile, work is progressing on a $14.1 million railroad construction project being done by Lakes Construction of Hinckley on behalf of the city at the V&M expansion site, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public works department.
MS Consultants of Youngstown is getting $800,000 to provide construction engineering, quality control and oversight for the project.
Stimulus money is being used to pay both companies.
“We have significant rail siding done, and we’re getting ready to put lines down,” Shasho said.
The construction project should be done by August 2012, he said.
V&M plans to open its new mill, at the former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Brier Hill Works facility, by mid-2012 and be fully operational by 2013.
The company manufactures steel tubes for the oil-and-gas industry.