(The following story by David Tewes appeared on the Victoria Advocate website on October 28.)
VICTORIA, Texas — Victoria and El Campo will have 400 fewer railcars passing through those cities daily because of a $20 million bypass Kansas City Southern plans to build.
“This has been a dream and a project for more than two years,” Victoria Mayor Will Armstrong said. “That’s going to be a big plus, a real quality of life issue.”
El Campo Mayor Phillip Spenrath said the railroad’s existing right of way runs through the heart of his city.
“We realize Kansas City Southern doesn’t have to move the rail,” he said. “The fact that they’re even willing to listen to us is just outstanding for the people of our city.”
Kansas City Southern is rebuilding the old Southern Pacific line between Victoria and Rosenberg. The tracks were taken up in 1996, but the right of way remained in place through both cities.
Local, state and railroad officials announced Tuesday an agreement between the state and Kansas City Southern that will make bypasses around Victoria and El Campo possible.
Warren Erdman, a Kansas City Southern executive vice president, said the agreement with the state allows the two entities to begin preliminary engineering.
That will help select the actual bypass routes and give the railroad a better idea of the exact cost, which will be financed by Kansas City Southern.
“Currently, we are doing engineering work in El Campo,” Erdman said. “We hope to have some of that wrapped up in the next couple of weeks and then we’re going to move down to Victoria to begin the engineering work.”
That should be completed next year and discussions will then begin with the landowners in the path of the bypass.
“We will probably start doing property acquisition next year,” Erdman said. “Once the entire right of way is assembled, then we could begin construction.”
Erdman said he’s hopeful the right of way matters can be wrapped up in a year. “Once we have the right of way ready to go, the construction is the easier part of it because we already have construction crews deployed in South Texas.”
Ted Houghton, a Texas Transportation Commission member, said this is a historic agreement between the state and the railroad.
“We’ve never done this before in the state of Texas,” he said. “We’re going to do it right here in this part of the great state of Texas.”
County Judge Don Pozzi said the bypasses first and foremost will improve safety by taking the trains away from heavily populated areas and from busy rail-street intersections. But they offer other advantages, including improved rail access for the Port of Victoria and for a proposed nuclear plant in the south part of the county, he said.