MassDOT awards industrial rail access grants

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation last week announced the recipients of more than $3 million in grants from the Industrial Rail Access Program.

The program is a competitive state-funded public/private partnership that helps invest in industry-based rail infrastructure access improvement projects. Grant recipients are required to match the grant funds with at least a 40% private match, MassDOT officials said in a press release.

The recipients are:

• Old Boston Road Recycling, $500,000 to support new track construction at the Wilbraham recycling facility;
• Arrowhead Environmental Partners, $500,000 to support renovations to the company's Ayer yard;
• Lehigh Cement Co., $500,000 to help upgrade rail-car unloading systems at its Palmer facility;
• CSX, $499,000 to support the Everett Coke Works Rehabilitation Project, which will aid freight-rail service in Everett;
• Cavossa Disposal Corp., $413,326 to help modernize the Upper Cape Regional Transfer Station in Sandwich;
• Ice Cube Maritime, $361,669 to support railway and unloading facility upgrades at a freight-rail shipper in New Bedford; and
• Broco Energy, $334,289 to support improvements to the 81 Hale Street Yard facilities in Haverhill.