Federal funds coming for proposed multimodal facility

Federal money will be used to build a facility aimed at improving and expanding truck-to-rail service for area industries.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced Tuesday it was awarding a $1.5 million grant to Cole County for rail and transportation infrastructure improvements needed to support economic development in the region.

This project will provide a rail spur and other transportation-related infrastructure needed to establish a multimodal transload facility within the Algoa Industrial Park. This EDA grant will be matched with $1.7 million from the half-cent capital improvement sales tax funds designated for Jefferson City/Cole County cooperative projects. It is expected to generate $8 million in private investment, according to grantee estimates.

In July, Cole County was awarded $880,000 in state transportation funds for the project. The money has to be spent by July 2023.

Through a preliminary engineering report produced by Central Missouri Professional Services, the estimate for construction of the facility is $3.16 million, which includes $655,500 for site work, $20,000 for demolition and removal, $2.34 million for construction and $150,000 earmarked for contingencies.

After the federal grant and state funds, that would leave $1.66 million to still be paid buy the local match.

Industries located in the area where the facility would be located include Scholastic, Command Web, ALPLA, Morris Packaging, Modern Litho, Axium Plastics and Three Rivers Electric Cooperative.

Supporters have said having rail access would provide industries in the park the opportunity to ship or receive goods in rail-car quantities, which has been shown to be more cost effective, reliable and fuel efficient than transportation via truck.

Economic development officials said site preparations for the facility could start early next year and be done by next summer. Work on the railroad track would then begin with that phase done by the end of 2023.

Rail service to the park is provided by Union Pacific Railroad. Cole County owns and maintains the existing rail spur, which was originally constructed in the 1990s and has been extended several times as new industries have been built in the park. This project will further extend the county rail spur to the new multimodal facility, which will have the ability to accommodate the loading and unloading of a wide range of commodities such as asphalt oil, fertilizer, grain, lumber, steel and others.

The facility would be located less than 2 miles from the Missouri National Guard Ike Skelton Training Facility and a proposed location for a Missouri River port by the Heartland Port Authority. It sits in the western boundary of the park in the southeast quadrant of the North Shamrock and Stertzer roads intersection. The property has been operated as a limestone rock quarry since the 1990s.

The Chamber of Commerce owned the property and leased it for quarrying as a method to level the site in preparation for industrial development.

Capital Land Investment currently owns the property on which the multimodal facility would be located and intends to donate approximately 26 acres to Cole County for the development of the facility and rail spur extension. Capital Land, in turn, would develop approximately 10 acres north of the multimodal facility into a terminal for the storage and distribution of asphalt oil and other liquid commodities.

The multimodal facility would be owned by Cole County and would be developed as a public-private partnership. Once built, the plan is for Cole County to procure a multimodal operator to manage and maintain the facility.

Cole County, in cooperation with Jefferson City, would be responsible for the construction of all infrastructure necessary to develop the multimodal facility.

The multimodal facility would require extending the existing Cole County rail spur to the proposed site, as well as rail sidings for product loading and unloading, access drive from Shamrock Road, loading drives, utility extensions and storm- water detention.