(The following story by Matt Garfield appeared on The Herald website on May 23.)
ROCK HILL, S.C. — Hopes for moving freight trains out of downtown Rock Hill are taking on added urgency as progress unfolds in the nearby Textile Corridor.
But relief won’t come anytime soon.
Several major hurdles stand in the way of plans for a new switchyard that would allow trains to maneuver without blocking traffic for extended periods every day. Chief among them: technical designs that have yet to be drawn up and costs that are still unknown.
In November, Mayor Doug Echols voiced anger in questioning city staffers why progress has taken so long.
“I don’t know who needs to take the ball and run with it, but this needs to be dealt with on a daily basis,” Echols said, pointing a pen at those in charge of the project. “If we’re going to be serious about the Textile Corridor … we ought to at least to know what the schedule is.”
It will take a while
Six months later, it’s unclear when construction might start.
“This is still a project that’s going to take a couple of years,” said Stephen Turner, director of the Rock Hill Economic Development Corp. “And it’s not just the money right now.”
Trains rumble into downtown every few hours to begin a ritual of stops and turns that hold up traffic and create noise for blocks around. The city and York County have spent years devising upgrades to fix the problem.
One of the most important steps involves moving a side track farther north and away from downtown so that trains can stop to transfer boxcars and switch directions without blocking the Main and White street intersections.
In related work, York County would close two crossings at Mill and Curtis streets, but add a new, safer one at the intersection of Poe and Quantz streets, which would be reconfigured.
Thursday is the deadline for design firms to apply to take on the switchyard portion. The design options will allow city officials to gauge exact costs and, ultimately, determine a timeline for construction.
Norfolk Southern supports the plans. But the company has told local officials it needs to see specific proposals before agreeing to put up any money. Rock Hill and York County would cover the bulk of the price tag, with help from federal grants, officials say.
Progress on other fronts
The city and county also are closer to an agreement on a related part of the project that calls for improving the congested Dave Lyle Boulevard/White Street intersection, said York County Council Chairman Buddy Motz. That work was first planned on the 2003 Pennies for Progress one-cent road program.
“It’s nothing that’s been delayed intentionally,” Motz said. “It just takes a while to get these things worked out.”
Another piece of good news is that trains are making less noise as they pass through town, says Gary Williams, whose Williams & Fudge college loan agency will move into the Cotton Factory this summer following a $10 million renovation. A grand opening ceremony is set for Sept. 6.
Williams and city officials have met with Norfolk Southern representatives to talk about the whistles as well as the switchyard project.
“They’re being very cognizant of the presence of more people around here,” said Williams. “A lot of times they’d just lay on the whistle. Now they’re doing proper signaling.”
For those familiar with Rock Hill’s history, the effort to move the trains evokes memories of another downtown improvement project that encountered its own setbacks: Taking the roof off downtown. The roof, installed in the 1970s to create TownCenter Mall, cost $3.4 million to take down in 1993.
Turner, 50, said he is optimistic the railroad project will be completed before he retires, which won’t be for at least another 10 years.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Turner said. “I was here in the late 1980s when we started asking the question, ‘What are we going to do about the TownCenter Mall? I know how long it takes for these projects.”