(The following story by John Sowell appeared on The News-Review website on March 2, 2010.)
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ore. — Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad officials say they’re eager to resume work on the partially completed Winchester switching yard just west of Interstate 5.
Last week, the Oregon Transportation Commission agreed to reinstate grant funding on the project that stalled after the Roseburg-based railroad shut down the 111-mile Coos Bay line in September 2007. The commission first suspended funding from a $7.7 million ConnectOregon grant and then withdrew it completely.
CORP filed suit in Douglas County Circuit Court seeking resumption of the grant or an equal amount due under the grant as damages. The railroad claimed the state had no right to terminate the grant contract when it had complied with all of the terms.
The state claimed that when the Coos Bay line was shut down, that lessened the value of the switching yard, which was to benefit the entire CORP line. The railroad claimed the withdrawal of the grant was meant as retaliation for the line closure.
The commission agreed to settle the civil lawsuit Wednesday just as jurors were to be selected for the trial.
CORP has already been paid $1.4 million in reimbursements for purchase of the land north of Del Rio Road that is being used for the switching yard and for equipment and supplies. There are also invoices for other sums that have not been turned in yet, said Scott Williams, senior vice president and general counsel for CORP parent RailAmerica.
Once those invoices have been submitted to ODOT, the transportation department will have 30 days to write a check. Once that payment has been made, CORP will have eight months to complete the project.
“My people tell me it won’t take that long,” Williams said.
After the lawsuit was filed in November 2008, CORP said it could have completed the switching yard in less than three months if funding was resumed.
Williams said the railroad will be bidding out the project at the same time it is assembling its invoices for submission to the Oregon Department of Transportation. Work should resume fairly quickly once those invoices are paid. He said Friday he didn’t know how much those invoices will total.
Besides the grant, CORP is also contributing $1.9 million of its own money for the project.
Under the lawsuit settlement, CORP agreed to scale back the overall $9.6 million project by $1 million. It will eliminate one of the 11 tracks planned for the facility. The company also agreed to use less costly manual switches rather than solar-powered ones, remove the 13 double-pole yard lighting system and eliminate a steel-reinforced concrete pad for truck loading and unloading.
“When you lose some track space, you lose the ability to move some cars. But we felt it was important for the overall project to get this settled,” Williams said.
When the project is completed, the railroad will be able to build and break down trains at the facility. Completing those tasks at the existing cramped facility near downtown Roseburg has created frequent blockages for vehicle traffic at rail crossings throughout Roseburg.
While long trains will still travel through Roseburg, crossings will be blocked for much shorter periods of time because the switching operations will now take place far from those crossings, he said.
Like the state, CORP was glad to get the lawsuit settled, Williams said. Having the switching yard up and running will not only benefit the company but shippers and the community itself, he said.
“Our company really had the interests of the community at heart,” he said.