(The following story by Michelle Mahfoufi appeared on the Shreveport Times website on June 30.)
SHREVEPORT, La. — Anyone who’s turned off Shreveport-Blanchard Highway onto North Lakeshore Drive in Shreveport can tell you about the tight squeeze at the Kansas City Southern Railway underpass.
“It’s awful narrow for a large truck and car to go through at the same time. You have to use your driving skills,” said Harry Lowery, chief of Caddo Fire District 2 and a 45-year resident of neighboring Lakeview subdivision.
But a three-year, $50 million construction project announced Wednesday by KCS soon may change that. The railway will expand its north Shreveport rail yard and, in the process, widen and attempt to solve the flooding problems at both underpasses along Shreveport-Blanchard Highway.
“Thank God,” said Lakeview resident Joann Wheless. “That is how everyone who comes to the north side of Cross Lake has to travel. I think it would be a huge improvement to that area.”
Local officials hope it won’t be the only one.
While the point of KCS’ expansion is to improve efficiency at the yard and move more trains through quicker, the railway also is promoting it as a way to partner with local government to pool dollars for community improvements.
KCS is committed to the project regardless of government involvement. But combining resources would allow the railway and government to address future issues as well as current concerns.
“It’s ‘Do you want the Cadillac version or the Volkswagen version?'” said Assistant Caddo Parish Administrator Randy Lucky.
As an example, Shreveport Mayor Keith Hightower points to KCS’ plan to stabilize the Cross Lake levee for additional rail. “We know that we’ve got some levee improvements that we need to do that don’t involve KCS.
“It seems to make sense to do the projects with each other instead of two separate times and leverage our dollars. … It’s still in the discussion stage,” the mayor said. “But, again, it makes sense if we both have discussions going on that we talk together and consolidate the projects.”
One project the parish would be interested in pursuing is the widening of Shreveport-Blanchard Highway. That isn’t part of the KCS plan but “hopefully, with a company as big as KCS that is going to come in and do a $50 million makeover on their yard, we could see some improvement to Highway 173,” Lucky said. “I don’t know what will happen there or if it will, but what a wonderful opportunity for something to happen.”
KCS estimates the project will generate 150 construction jobs with a $10 million payroll and $12 million in material purchases. The railway, which employs about 900 people in Shreveport, would not speculate on the number of jobs the expansion would create.
But “the good news was they are going to spend in excess of $50 million to improve and upgrade the entire KCS facility, which should lead to a stabilization of the work force and the economic presence they have here,” Metropolitan Planning Commission director Charles Kirkland said.