Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Upgrades loom for Davenport link to Wilbur
DAVENPORT — The U.S. Federal Railroad Administration has awarded $37.7 million toward Washington State Rural Rail Rehabilitation Phase III to improve supply chain efficiency and resiliency along rail lines across Lincoln County and other rural areas in Eastern Washington.
State Rail Freight and Port’s Divisions Capital and PCC Railway Program Manager Larry Rasmussen said $37.7 million has been earmarked for Washington Eastern Railroad connecting Davenport to Wilbur.
“The project is going to replace 34 miles of rail and ties between Davenport and Wilbur,” Rasmussen said.
The funds will pay to replace 100-year-old lightweight, worn rail with a new heavier rail to better accommodate modern 286,000-pound rail cars.
Rasmussen said while the improvements are in Lincoln County, the project is also leveraging funds for capital improvements on the entire Whitman County rail system.
“It frees up more of our state funds to be used on the other two branches,” Rasmussen said, noting that although the $37.7 million will go towards the Davenport to Wilbur Central Washington branch.
The other two branches include Palouse River Coulee City and PV Hooper, the branch that runs from Thornton to Winona and from Hooper through Winona to Colfax.
“Our system goals are to raise the entire system, the three systems, to a state of repair while building resiliency,” Rasmussen said.
The funds will come from the “Move Ahead Washington” initiative package, in which state transportation officials $150 million towards repairing the rail system. Rasmussen said the rail will focus on moving grain commodities.
“We’re just part of the supply chain in moving the local wheat to domestic and foreign markets,” he said.
This is the third federal grant the state rail division has received for the entire Palouse Coulee City Rail system, Rail, Freight and Ports Division spokeswoman Janet Matkin said.
“There are seven other projects, including some that are part of the PCC system, that went directly to those railroads,” she said.
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