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CRISI grant helps Little Rock Port Authority kickstart rail-capacity project

8/1/2022
A view of North Marshaling Yard, where a portion of 11,215 feet of new track and a new engine maintenance facility will be built at the Port of Little Rock. Port of Little Rock

By Grace Renderman, Associate Editor 

A new freight-rail project backed by federal funding will boost the Port of Little Rock’s capacity in a big way, officials at the Arkansas port say. 

In June, the port was awarded a $5.5 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) grant, which it’ll use to add 11,215 feet of track to two locations, the Slackwater Harbor siding and the North Marshaling Yard, as well as build an engine maintenance facility. The new facility will allow for storage and service of two locomotives with room for two more in the future.  

The port will provide a 25% match. 

In this fiscal-year 2021 round of CRISI funding, 46 projects in 32 states and the District of Columbia qualified for grants. The Federal Railroad Administration received more than 122 eligible applications requesting a total of $1.2 billion. 

A key feature of the new engine maintenance facility is the inspection pit, which will enable the Port of Little Rock Railroad to be compliant with federal safety glazing standards for locomotives. It’ll also make engine-cleaning easier, port officials wrote in grant proposal documents submitted to the FRA. 

“This project is very necessary for operations of the Little Rock Port Authority Railroad because the inadequate unheated/uncooled, leaky corrugated metal building previously used to house the railroad crew, and one locomotive had to be torn down two years ago,” officials wrote. “The crew has been temporarily housed in a mobile building until funding becomes available to build more suitable accommodations. This situation is definitely a morale buster for the railroad crew.” 

The need for increased capacity is urgent as the port has recently become a hub for plastics manufacturers, namely Trex Co. Inc., Synthesia Ltd., Georg Fischer, HMS Manufacturing Co., Revolution Plastics and Ring Container Technologies. Last year, Trex announced the construction of a $400 million facility in the Port of Little Rock Industrial Park, which will increase the company’s annual rail-car count by 2,000, according to the grant proposal. Synthesia, a 500-rail-car user, has also signed a letter of intent to relocate to the park. 

The grant is a big boon for the port, says Marsha Guffey, the port’s grants and special projects manager. It represents an impetus to build infrastructure that will help the port meet customers’ current and future demands. It’s a way for the port to stay competitive as it grows, she says. 

Slackwater Harbor A view of Slackwater Harbor, where a siding will be constructed. Port of Little Rock

“If you build it, they will come,” Guffey says. “I've seen how fast projects move, and if you just don't have the availability of the needed infrastructure, they're going to go someplace else where they do — particularly when you’re in the port business.” 

In the works since 2015, the project is nearly “shovel-ready,” Guffey says; the port had been holding off on it until funding came through. Now, the project should come together quickly — in about two years’ time, Guffey says. 

Guffey believes Little Rock will become one of the more reliable ports within the Arkansas River system once the project is completed. The river is a major tributary of the Mississippi River, the nation’s largest freshwater-shipping gateway. 

“The money that's been put into infrastructure [is] greatly needed. A lot of it is aging infrastructure, but then some of it’s needed to accommodate new capacity,” Guffey says. “We’re really thankful for the federal dollars that are coming through.” 

Rail is the port’s largest revenue stream, given its proximity to interstates 40 and 30, as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport. Besides plastics, commodities moving through the port include steel coil, bauxite and trialuminum hydrate, fertilizer, cement, ethanol and peanuts. 

Operating on 20 miles of track, the port railroad currently serves more than 20 local manufacturing, warehousing and distribution companies as well as numerous regional shippers. It connects with Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway Co.  

A grant for the Port of Baltimore, too 

Meanwhile, the Port of Baltimore plans to complete a similar rail capacity modernization project after receiving $15.6 million in CRISI grant funding.  

The project includes construction of four new working tracks and two crane rail beams within the port’s Seagirt Marine Terminal, which will enable the port to handle doublestack trains between Seagirt and the Howard Street Tunnel, according to grant proposal documents. The terminal is served by Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX, which transport containers to East Coast and Midwest markets. Ports America Chesapeake, which leases and operates the terminal, will provide a 30% match. 

The rail modernization project also offers environmental benefits, such as improved air quality by moving freight from road to rail and converting existing diesel-fueled yard operations to electrified equipment, Maryland Port Administration officials said in a press release. 

“Improving intermodal rail operations is one of our top priorities, and the infrastructure improvements made possible through this grant will seamlessly complement our Howard Street Tunnel expansion project,” said MPA and Port of Baltimore Executive Director William Doyle. 

The ongoing Howard Tunnel project — which is expected to be completed by 2025 — is a sister project to the modernization project, port officials say. The tunnel project will provide vertical clearance improvements along CSX-owned track, enabling doublestack trains to travel along the I-95 rail corridor between Baltimore and Philadelphia. The tunnel was constructed in 1895 and currently does not meet vertical clearances of the minimum 21 feet necessary for doublestack. CSX, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania are all funding the tunnel’s construction. 

“This grant will take us one step closer to increasing capacity to meet current and future demands ahead of the Howard Street Tunnel Project,” said Bayard Hogans, vice president of Ports America Chesapeake. “In addition, the project will result in improved environmental impact and safety at Seagirt — two fundamental priorities.”