Minnesota DOT awards grants for 5 freight-rail projects

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has awarded nearly $4.5 million in state grants for five freight-rail improvement projects that support economic development.

Funding for the projects comes from the Minnesota Rail Service Improvement Program, which has helped fund 21 freight infrastructure projects with $28.6 million since 2017, MnDOT officials said in a press release.

The five selected projects and their grant amounts are:

• JMJ Properties, $1 million to establish new rail service at an industrial facility in Staples to transport granite in part by installing 13,500 feet of new track;
• Denco II LLC, $1 million to construct a new rail siding with switches and a rail-car loading area in Morris that will connect the Denco II facility to a BNSF Railway mainline, enabling the onsite loading and shipment of ethanol via rail;
• Lake Agassiz Bean LLC, $900,000 to install a mainline turnout, 2,487 feet of new track, new safety equipment and a concreate loading area in Euclid to be able to load product directly into rail cars on site;
• Cloquet Terminal Railroad Co. Inc., $840,000 to upgrade 2,500 feet of aging track and renew two switch points on the railroad's mainline in Cloquet; and
• Minnesota Northern Railroad, $750,000 to extend its terminal into the Crookston Industrial Park, involving the installation of more than 2,600 feet of new track, addition of a switch to existing track and construction of a new turnout.