As a bit of a public service, today I am going to talk about the Lincolnway Railport. This is the largest and most ambitious economic development project in the Clinton area in a long, long time. So, it is important to know all the facts.
Aerial Concept View
How long has this been in development?
The former director of the Clinton Regional Development Corporation, the late, Hugh Lamont, began looking into the project and talking about it with interested parties as far back as 1989, according to Ed O’Neill, former Director of the Quality Jobs program at the CRDC. When the current Executive Director, Steve Ames, came on board he began to move the project forward and planning in earnest began in 2005.
What is the rationale for this project?
Since the first settlements in Clinton and Lyons, the area’s economic development has been driven by geography and the area’s ties to transportation links. The same is true today and that is Clinton’s main advantage for a project like this.
Clinton is on the banks of the Mississippi River and has three barge terminals.
- The City of Clinton terminal behind ADM.
- The former Determann Industries terminal, now owned by Artco in Camanche.
- The private deep-channel terminal in Fulton, IL.
Clinton is served by three Class I (national service) Railroad Lines:
- The Union Pacific running East to West through town.
- The Canadian Pacific, which recently bought the Iowa Central and Eastern (ICE) running North to South along the river.
- The Burlington Northern & Santa Fe, which also crosses the river at Clinton and runs North-South on both the Iowa and Illinois side where it also crosses at Burlington.
Clinton has excellent access to major highways with four lane US Highway 30 leading west and via US Highway 61, linking up with Interstate 80 twenty-five miles away. In addition, plans are in place to construct a four lane extension from Highway 30 from the Interstate 88 exit outside Morrison, Illinois to Clinton, which would bring four full lanes accessing town from East and West.
Clinton has a municipal airport with a 5400 foot runway that can accommodate corporate and light cargo aircraft.
This combination gives Clinton a huge advantage in serving industries that require bulk transport in or out of the area of raw materials or finished goods. According to O’Neill there are only about five or six similar locations in the entire United States that even come close. And Clinton’s project is the only one close to being ready. Therefore we have a unique position.
What is the Railport project?
The overall vision is to build railroad access to a parcel of land between Hwy 30 and 44th Avenue South just south of the Airport and then to attract industrial tenants to the facility and build out on the 500 fully improved acres already owned with potential for 1,000 more to be added later. According to multiple sources at the CRDC and at the City, this is not a pipe dream. No less than a dozen very large firms have visited Clinton and expressed very strong interest in locating to this site. Although there are no guarantees, the attitude of many of the firms has been one of, “Let us know when you have it ready and we’ll move in.”
Map view.
Phase I of the project is to build accommodation for pulling trains off the Union Pacific main line. This will be a 9700 foot long extension that will allow a full, 100 car train to pull off the Union Pacific main line. This was a requirement of the Union Pacific. If we were going to put (another) spur on the main line, the railroad wanted to be able to pull off an entire train for loading, unloading and switching so as not to delay traffic. Phase I will also include a 3000′ runaround line near the Railport site to allow through trains to continue on their East-West journeys while trains are entering and exiting the railport.
Phase II of the project will be to build the railroad access lines into the industrial park area. This will be done specific to the needs of facilities that move into the industrial park. Much of the cost of this phase will be absorbed through state and federal economic development grants and zero-interest loans.
How much will it cost?
Phase I has a construction cost of $10.8 million. This comprises: $2 million for bridges, culverts and railroad switches, $2.35 million for grading and earthwork, $6.4 million for ballast and railway. The time frame on this is approximately 18 months. In addition, $5 million worth of land and engineering will be contributed by the City of Clinton, $3.0 million of sewerage will be donated by the City of Clinton and $2 million of land will be contributed by the CRDC to bring the total cost to $20.8 million.
The funding for this project will hopefully come from the following sources:
- City of Clinton $8m
- CRDC $2m
- Clinton County $6m
- Federal DOT $2m
- Gaming Grant $1m
- IDED, Other $1.8m
The federal loans are stimulus fund money via the Iowa DOT. They must be used by January 1, 2013. So there is some urgency to get things moving.
What will the result be?
While there are no written guarantees, no less than a dozen large firms have visited the site and met with CRDC officials and expressed very strong interest in the site. 9 of these firms were wind power related. This project is a targeted development not just of the Clinton area but of the Iowa Department of Economic Development, so Des Moines is strongly behind it as well.
According to IDED studies, the project will attract up to 1,000 high-wage (> $17/hour) jobs within 5 years of completion of Phase I. This does not include construction related jobs for completion of the project and building of the very large facilities on the property. The net positive wage inflows to the area will increase by $25 million.
Also, whenever there is a large concentration of a particular industry in the area, other businesses tend to locate there in order to serve those customers. So, one can logically expect other business development to follow-on to the railport project once the tenant industries are established there.
There will be a public hearing on the project at the Clinton County Board of Supervisors on December 14 at 10:00 at the County Administraton Building.
Do your research. The City said the same thing about the building of Chemplex in the late 50′s. All that industry will follow and Clinton would become a MECCA to worship money and every resident would pay low taxes and walk on golden sidewalks. The building of the Railport is for ADM to get UPR off their backs! Another government financed project Mr. CMAN.