43
Study suggests 5 projects to restore railroad needs
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
A study conducted by Cleveland-based Project RESTORE has recommended the five top projects it feels would best restore the railroad needs of the Mahoning Valley.
The $10,000 study was paid for by the Western Reserve Port Authority, which runs the Youngs-town-Warren Regional Airport and conducts economic development activities.
First on the list is $2.1 million worth of improvements to the railroad infrastructure at Ohio Commerce Center on state Route 45 in Lordstown.
The improvements would include new tracks, improvements to existing tracks and switches (which allow trains to switch tracks), and improvements to the state Route 45 bridge.
In April, the Ohio Department of Development awarded a $2 million grant to help prepare 266 acres of industrial and manufacturing space at the Ohio Commerce Center.
Ken Prendergast, head of RESTORE, said the improvements being suggested by RESTORE’s study would be in addition to the improvements covered by the grant.
Second on RESTORE’s list is $2.3 million worth of new tracks and track rehabilitation at V&M Star in Youngstown to expand the interchange yard.
The mill has been producing about 500,000 tons of seamless steel pipe each year, but that amount is expected to increase by 350,000 tons each year after its plant expansion and could increase by 500,000 tons “over the long term,” the study said.
It is assumed the capacity of the rail yard may need to double to accommodate this growth, the study says.
The port authority commissioned the study to determine what rail lines should be restored to meet the “re-industrialization” that has been taking place in the Mahoning Valley as a result of interest in the Utica Shale play in Eastern Ohio.
Prendergast said both of the top two sites are heavily influenced by shale-gas activity, but in both cases, business activity there is likely to remain years after the shale play has been exhausted in around 20 years.
The study was focused on rail improvements that can be implemented in two years or less.
Third on the list is $1.3 million worth of improvements in the rail yard at the CASTLO Industrial Park to accommodate an increase in steel pipe business at Lally Pipe & Tube Corp., which receives pipe by rail from V&M Star. The additional $1.3 million would improve rail access to Lally Pipe and Tube.
Project 4 would be to make $1.9 million worth of improvements to tracks at Warren Steel Holdings (formerly Copperweld Steel) in Warren Township, decommissioned tracks near Summit Street Northwest and to build a new track connection just west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The work would allow Warren Steel Holdings, which ships with trucks, to reach CSX train tracks running west into Newton Falls.
Project 5, costing $416,000, would take place just east and north of Jefferson in Ashtabula County and would provide areas for railcar storage.
The improvements could help with the loading for sand, which is the most-important and most-used material in the gas and oil industry that is brought to drill sites by rail, the study said.