Washington State Legislature funds key rail projects

The Washington State Legislature approved a total of $32.9 million in its 2015-2017 Transportation Revenue Package towards three rail infrastructure and economic development projects in Eastern Washington.    Three primary rail infrastructure and economic development projects in the Columbia Basin – the Northern Columbia Basin Railroad Project, the Connell Rail Interchange Improvement Project and the Port of Warden’s Rail Infrastructure Expansion Project – received funding in the 2015-2017 Transportation Revenue Package passed and approved by the Washington State Legislature, the Columbia Basin Railroad said.
   The Northern Columbia Basin Railroad Project received $20.9 million in funding to enhance and improve rail access to industries in the northern Columbia Basin area near Moses Lake, Wash.
   The Connell Rail Interchange Improvement Project received $10 million in funding to help modernize the interchange in order for it to better handle the increase in rail cargo volumes traveling through Connell, Wash. The Connell Rail Interchange, located in Eastern Washington where the Columbia Basin Railroad line intersects with BNSF Railway’s Lakeside Subdivision line, was built nearly 100 years ago and is currently too outdated and inefficient to handle recent increases in rail cargo volumes.
   The Port of Warden’s Rail Infrastructure Expansion Project received $2 million in funding. The project will involve the construction of approximately one mile of new rail storage siding track along the Columbia Basin Rail Line at the Port of Warden. This additional track will help facilitate the increase of growth at the Port of Warden as a result of a new commercial-scale canola seed crushing production facility, additional fresh produce packing and frozen and dehydrated food processing and the associated warehousing for these products.