The Chadron City Council has given its support to granting the Chadron-based Nebraska Northwestern Railroad an extra year to complete the upgrade and repair of its yard in Chadron and the rail line and bridges from Chadron to Crawford.
The project is being funded largely by a $4.9-million dollar federal TIGER-II grant. The city was the official recipient and administrator of the grant for Nebraska Northwestern
Railroad President Jack Nielsen of Alliance says the federal agency that issued the grant was the one that recommended requesting an extension from the end of this year to the end of next year because of problems in NNRR getting the rock needed for ballast to finish up the project.
Nielsen says the delaying completion won’t bring any penalties and is needed because there’s a good likelyhood the railroad couldn’t finish the ballast work in the next 3 months even if it had the rock.
The other major part of the renovation and repair project still to be finished is the switches between Chadron and Dakota Junction, and crews began installation of those this morning.
Nebraska Northwestern uses the Chadron yard to store cars for other railroads and companies, and to refurbish railroad equipment for sale.
It hopes to eventually expand to include locomotives, but the former Chicago and NorthWestern line linking the yard to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe at Crawford and the DM&E in Rapid City needed to be restored and upgraded to handle the weight of the engines.
A key part of that was upgrading the original wooden bridges, which Nielsen says gave him the most worry at first but went smoothly thanks to the work of general manager Roy Fitzgibbons and the railroad’s own crews…which did nearly all of the rail and yard repairs and upgrades.
The repair and upgrade project, even though not complete yet, helped lead Transportation Services Incorporated…one of the nation’s railcar maintenance and repair companies…to open a facility at the Chadron yard.
Nielsen says that’s good for both his company and the local economy, but wouldn’t have happened without the federal grant. TSI began operations in Chadron last month.