(The following story by Amy Thon appeared on The Dispatch website on January 15.)
MOLINE, Ill. — Although railroad tracks leading to the property slated to be a rail and truck transfer facility aren’t functional, and there’s no timeframe for repairs, developers say the project is moving forward.
A November derailment of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train in Colona took out the switch where BNSF tracks cross Iowa Interstate tracks. Iowa Interstate tracks eventually lead into Silvis along the south side of the RailTech site.
RailTech will be an intermodal rail and truck facility on 360 acres off Silvis’ 1st Avenue. Its $30 million railroad center, the Quad City Railport, is expected to generate a large number of jobs.
Colona Fire Chief John Swan said trains haven’t gone through Colona on the Iowa Interstate track since the derailment. “Iowa Interstate railroad has merged their track right in with the Burlington Northern in Colona.”
Mike Wacker, chief transportation officer for Iowa Interstate, said they expect repairs to be made. Since the derailment, “we’ve been working in conjunction with the Burlington Northern to go through their Barstow facility,” and trying to fix the damaged tracks, he said.
Steven Forsberg, spokesman for Burlington Northern, said no timeframe has been set for repairs. “Currently, the Iowa Interstate is routing over our track in the interim. Traffic is being handled.”
RailTech developer Tom Dalton said they’ve been working with Iowa Interstate representatives and he’s confident it will be fixed.
The BNSF tracks run north of the RailTech property, but don’t border it, Mr. Dalton said. “There’s an access to the property from the Burlington Northern,” he said, adding that they don’t plan to use that as access to the site because they’re working with Iowa Interstate.
“If there’s any opportunity for growth with rail development with truck distribution,” Mr. Wacker said, “Iowa Interstate would certainly want to be the ones involved.”