Ohio panel OKs $2M in rail construction, upgrade grants

The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) last week approved three grants to businesses to improve or create rail access. 

The ORDC approved a $1,055,817 grant to the Ohio Central Railroad (OCRD) to replace 19,200 linear feet of 90-pound jointed rail with 115RE continuous-welded rail, upgrade a turnout in Beach City and rehabilitate three grade crossings. The total project will cost $2.1 million. OCRD operates 74 miles of track between Zanesville and Brewster. It primarily handles interchange traffic between Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway and the Ohio Central System railroads, ORDC officials said in a press release.

The ORDC also approved a $589,505 grant to Indiana & Ohio Railway (IORY) to replace more than 11,000 linear feet of 80-pound rail with 115RE continuous-welded rail, replace 525 ties and rehabilitate four grade crossings. The total project cost is $1.2 million, ORDC officials said. IORY operates more than 27 miles of rail from Cleves to Brookville, Indiana, where 95% of traffic consists of aggregates from Melvin Stone.

Finally, the ORDC approved a $300,000 grant to Kalmbach Feeds Inc. to install a new rail spur at its feed mill near Upper Sandusky. The new spur will directly serve the feed mill and its planned new pet foods facility. The project is estimated at more than $125 million, ORDC officials said in a press release.

Kalmbach operates in four states and produces livestock feeds. As the company plans to expand into domestic animal food, it is creating a separate pet food facility due to regulatory differences between pet food and livestock food production. Raw materials will be shipped via rail to the facility on the newly constructed rail receiving and transload facility, then transloaded to the new pet foods facility for processing and packaging, ORDC officials said.