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Board OKs additional rail work at site of expansion
YOUNGSTOWN
The cost of the city’s $18 million railroad construction and relocation project needed for V&M Star’s $650 million expansion is increasing by $404,295.08 because of additional work needed by the company.
The board of control on Friday approved spending the extra money.
Because V&M is requesting the additions, it will reimburse the cost of the extra work to the city, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public works department.
The additions include excavation work, more fill material and an additional embankment to make the rail ground level with the company’s new plant, still under construction, as well as to pay Ohio Central Railroad for employees and equipment to oversee the project, Shasho said.
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 package, for rail improvements V&M wants for its expansion project on the Youngstown-Girard line.
The city’s rail project should be done by July, Shasho said.
V&M plans to open its new mill at the former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Brier Hill Works facility by the middle of the year and be fully operational by 2013.
The company manufactures steel tubes for the oil-and-gas industry.
Also Friday, the board of control finalized a contract to give a 20-acre site on Salt Springs Road to Exterran Energy Solutions, a company planning a $13.2 million natural-gas compression manufacturing facility there.
The company will have a ground-breaking ceremony Tuesday.
Exterran plans to hire 103 employees between this July and July 2015 for the new facility.
The company provides a variety of above-ground services for the oil-and-gas industry including processing, compression, water treatment, equipment, products and services.
The city received about $4 million from the state in 2009 for a new road and utility lines at the location.
Exal Corp., which makes aluminum cans and bottles, had considered a $400 million expansion at that site, dating back to 2007.