CSX-led team wins 'Phoenix' land redevelopment award

CSX Corp. and its five partners recently received the Phoenix Award for sustainable brownfield redevelopment from the Phoenix Awards Institute.

The award recognizes the parties' successful two-year effort to restore the ecosystem of a 24-acre former wood treatment site in Gautier, Miss. CSX's partners were the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality; Land Trust of the Mississippi Coastal Plain; ARCADIS U.S.; Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens & Cannada P.L.L.C.; and McGuire Woods L.L.P.

Located in a coastal community, the Gautier plot had been a brownfield site for nearly two decades following the closure of a wood treatment facility that was operated by a predecessor railroad for more than 100 years. The CSX-led team contained and stabilized the residual wood-treating compounds in the ground and sediment. The site now offers a natural aesthetic, encouraging recreational use of the Pascagoula River and promoting ecotourism in the region, CSX officials said in a press release.

"The Gautier remediation project embodies our company's deep commitment to environmental stewardship, wildlife management and economic development on our existing and inherited properties," said Skip Elliott, CSX's vice president of public safety, health and environment.

The Phoenix Awards honor outstanding revitalization projects that restored abandoned properties to mixed-use communities.