Rutland Herald

New railyard may be six years away

February 28, 2001
By ALETHEA RENZI Herald Staff


Engineers were on hand Tuesday night to help Rutland Town residents sort through issues tacked to a proposed railyard, which might not be built until 2007.

The spot: 78 acres located between Randbury Road and Route 4, just west of the Holiday Inn on Route 7.

Also proposed is a connecting road between Route 4 there and downtown Rutland. It would be built along an old Vermont Railway track that may be moved as part of the plan.

The existing 48-acre railyard, located behind the Rutland Shopping Plaza, creates traffic problems because the rail crosses several busy streets in the city when trains are switching tracks.

It also forces some trains coming from Whitehall, N.Y., to enter the city before turning north toward Burlington, an engineer said Tuesday night. As part of the railyard planning, a 1,500-foot trestle in Center Rutland is proposed between two tracks to allow trains that don't need to unload freight in Rutland to stay outside city limits.

The new railyard would not alleviate train crossings on Main Street, which handles cars coming from Bellows Falls, according to the engineer. A connector was considered further south on Route 7, but grade differences on the two sides of the highway make it impossible.

About 15 people attended the discussion Tuesday night, including Rutland Town selectmen, a Rutland City alderman, officials from OMYA Inc. and members of the public.

The Rutland Redevelopment Authority hired a Boston engineering firm, Vanasse, Hangen, Brustlin Inc., with $120,000 in state funds in December to conduct an environmental impact study. It should be finished by June 30, according to RRA Executive Director Matthew Sternberg.

"It'll give us a clear indication of the final potential shape of the project - right now it's just a concept," he said.

Two VHB engineers, David Wilcox and Kristine Wickham, and Charles Bischoff, vice president of operations for Vermont Railway, fielded questions at the Rutland Town Hall.

Most of the questions dealt with the logistics of the plan.

Selectman Rodney Gallipo said that other projects slated for the proposed site off Route 4 didn't happen because of the ground's unsteady constitution.

"Things have the habit to settle out of sight there," he said.

Wilcox said a local engineering firm was looking into that and said construction of a railyard could be possible even though other plans have fallen through.



Timing was also an issue. After the environmental study is completed, the process of gaining federal and state permits, including an Act 250 permit, will come next. In a worst case scenario, Sternberg said, it could take three years to approve the project.



Then it will take about a year to design and possibly another two construction seasons to build, Wilcox said.



Kenneth Enzor, director of logistics and distribution for OMYA, said, "That's too late."



Enzor said that if OMYA, a marble processing company based in Florence, continued to grow as projected, it would have more business than the railyard could handle in three years.



Wilcox said the proposed connecting road between Route 4 and the downtown could be used for truck traffic, addressing some of the state's concerns about truck issues.



Sternberg said he hoped to go right into the permit process once the report was out and identified potential problem areas.



"I want to keep it moving seamlessly," he said.



The money for the railyard would come from state funds. Burlington is also looking at ideas for a new railyard, and is conducting a study on funding options, which Sternberg said would be useful to the Rutland area.



"We just got that study done on Burlington's tab," he said.



Selectman Richard DelBianco expressed concern that if Burlington and Rutland went head-to-head for funding, the Queen City would get the money.



But Sternberg said that project is a couple of years behind Rutland's.



"We'll get there first," he said.