(The following story by Peter Gartrell appeared on the News-Record website on July 15.)
GILLETTE, Wyo. — The expanding building on the corner of Wyoming Avenue and E-Z Street may look like a hotel at first glance, and, in a way, it is.
But this structure and its 90 new rooms will have some features you might not normally see — blackout shades, soundproof insulation, a spacious recreation room and a dispatch center.
It also isn’t likely you’ll be staying there — unless, that is, you’re working for BNSF Railway.
It’s not a Holiday Inn, a Super 8 or the Ritz Carlton. When it’s completed later this year, the building on Wyoming and E-Z is a bunkhouse for railroad employees.
“With the difficulty of getting hotels in Gillette, we want to make sure we have a place to stay,” said Sam Sexhus, the railroad’s Powder River Division general manager.
The railroad, which shipped more than 350 million tons of coal out of area mines in 2006 and has been undertaking a series of massive construction projects, already puts workers up at the Best Western Tower West Lodge at Highway 14-16 and Skyline Drive.
As expansions continue, BNSF wants to have more spaces dedicated for its train crews, who routinely come from all over eastern Wyoming and Montana, as well as construction workers who routinely come in from across the country. Especially for the train crews, who work at all times of day and night, the blackout shades and soundproofing is beneficial.
The railroad won’t own the two-floor, 31,000-square-foot building. Instead, BNSF will lease it from Custer, S.D., developer LJK Properties, which, according to city records, is spending more than $2 million on the project.
Sexhus said the expansion will be worth it to the railroad with coal shipping projections on the rise.
“It’ll be a direct reflection of the businesses, so on the coal business escalates and expands, we’ll have to meet demand,” he said.