(The following story by David Tewes appeared on the Victoria Advocate website on November 3, 2009.)
VICTORIA, Texas — Kansas City Southern announced a year ago a $20 million rail bypass plan for Victoria and El Campo, but state and county officials said they’ve seen no activity recently.
“We were going to see what they were doing and continuously review it so they didn’t go off in a direction we did not agree with,” said Paul Frerich with the Texas Department of Transportation. “I have not heard anything on that in several months.”
Victoria County Judge Don Pozzi said he can’t remember any activity on the bypass project since the railroad began running trains on its refurbished line in about May.
But Doniele Kane, a spokeswoman for the railroad, wrote in an e-mail that progress is being made.
Kansas City Southern and its outside engineering firm, TranSystems, have completed a preliminary review of possible bypass routes along the U.S. 59 corridor around Victoria, she wrote. A specific route has not yet been selected yet.
“The final route will depend in large part on whether or not the needed right of way can be acquired from private property owners,” Kane wrote. “Right of way acquisition is the most difficult hurdle for this project.”
The company hopes to avoid having to condemn property to get the right of way, she wrote.
Kansas City Southern still needs to conduct an environmental review, develop a possible construction design, right of way acquisition cost estimates and likely track construction costs. The company anticipates completing that work next year and using the information to determine the property acquisition requirements for route alignment, Kane wrote.
Kansas City Southern then plans to work with the Texas Department of Transportation and local officials to develop the right of way.
The rail company is exploring possible federal and state grant funding to assist with the right of way acquisition, given the recession and impact it has had on capital markets.
Warren Erdman, a Kansas City Southern executive vice president, said this time last year property acquisition for the bypass would probably begin in 2009.
But right-of-way acquisition will take more time and is more challenging than originally contemplated, Kane wrote. The project is still something Kansas City Southern will need and wants to pursue, she wrote.
“Obtaining the needed right of way and funding its acquisition is more difficult given the economic recession and its impact on current capital markets,” Kane wrote. “On the other hand, there are federal and state grant programs that exist now that did not exist a year ago.”