City engineers and other officials are busy with a number of transportation-related projects, some of which will be completed within weeks and others that have longer-term due dates.
RAILWAYS
Construction will start soon on a railroad spur to service Highland Packaging Solutions, a local plastics manufacturing company. The $250,000 project is being funded by a grant from FDOT’s Economic Development Transportation Fund.
When Highland Packaging Solutions began leasing space in the Gordon Food Services building in East Plant City two years ago, the existing railroad spur was part of the draw. A spur is a secondary, shorter track that allows customers a location to load and unload railcars. But, CSX pulled out the switch.
Directors of Highland Packaging Solutions requested for the spur to be re-opened. The initial agreement among the city, Highland Packaging Solutions and CSX was drafted in March 2013.
“We received it, but there were conditions in the grant that made us unable to sign off on it,” City Engineer Brett Gocka said.
But, city commissioners approved a modified agreement with FDOT at their Oct. 13, 2014 meeting.
Kristin Seay, a spokeswoman for CSX, said the project is expected to launch before the end of this year and be completed in early 2015.
CSX employees will construct and maintain the mainline connection, but a local railroad contractor will repair the existing portion of track. An additional contractor will build an unloading rack system to transfer products from railcars.
“It allows them to bring the product in by bulk,” Gocka said. “You can bring in more on a railcar than you can by a tractor trailer.”
John Baird, CFO of Highland Packaging Solutions, said it would also help decrease the company’s carbon footprint, because trains do not release as much carbon as trucks.
“From a business standpoint, it’s one of those things that’s really nice to have,” Baird said.
City engineers also have plans to work on the railroad spur that services American Cast Iron Pipe on Sammonds Road.
“The railroad spur crossing was in really bad shape,” Gocka said.
Work is expected to start within weeks.
ROADWAYS
A 1,000-foot stretch of Airport Road, between Woodrow Wilson Street and Old Sydney Road, needs to be reconstructed and resurfaced. The cost of this project is $129,926.
“We’ve got one lane of the roadway where we’re having some asphalt start to push and groove, and that’s due to some base issues,” Gocka said.
He said because of the high number of tractor trailers and other heavy vehicles that use the road, the base material had been worn down.
The project began Monday, Oct. 13, but workers encountered water in the base material. They are waiting for it to dry before they continued Wednesday, Oct. 29. The project will take about three weeks to complete, according to the contractor, Ajax Paving.
A separate project for Airport Road, through which it will be realigned, is about 30% complete at the design level.
The city also will be adding a left turn lane on northbound Alexander Street just across from Walmart.
“We’ve had some utility delays, but we think they’re all worked out now,” Gocka said.
He expects construction to start the week of Nov. 3.
Contact Catherine Sinclair at csinclair@plantcityobserver.com.