$4.9M rail expansion looks to make Lowndes County Port more attractive

The Lowndes County Port has received $2.9 million in federal infrastructure funds for a $4.9 million rail expansion into the southern side of its property.

The money is a portion of $59.5 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding awarded to the state by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Port Director Will Sanders told The Dispatch the federal money will cover the balance needed to complete 6,700 feet of additional rail track that will connect the entire east bank, and hopefully, make the port a more attractive option for potential clients in the future.

"We're using it to attract potential prospects," he said. "It's basically just adding infrastructure to our existing port that we don't have now. It's just one more incentive we can use (to market the port)."

The current rail spur at the port comes in on the northern side of the property, cuts through the Logistics Services Inc. building and ends on the other side of the facility.

Instead of stopping midway, Sanders said, the new rail will stretch all the way down the east bank, tying it to the other side of the Island.

In April, the port secured part of the funding for the new rail spur with a $1.5 million grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Sanders said he found out last week that another grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission for $500,000 was awarded to the port for the project.

That $2 million will be used for the first phase of the project, which will include constructing about half the rail, just past the LSI building.

The federal funds will cover the second half of the rail's construction, which will end near the old KiOR biofuel site, which closed in 2015 after the company declared bankruptcy.

The rail project should cost a little less than $5 million in total, Sanders said.

"If we have to cut it short, we'll have to cut it short, but that should get us all of that track," he said. "We hope that we'll be completed within a year and half."

Sanders said the rail expansion is part of the port's master plan to make the east bank more marketable. With newly installed rail, clients could reap the benefits of multimodal transportation, he said.

"We've got all the infrastructure as far as sewer and power and everything else, but now we're adding rail access to the whole port," Sanders said. "We have the water, and then we also have the trucking in and out of there."

The next step in the master plan is adding spec buildings near the former KiOR site on the south side of the island.

"We're trying to service some potential customers or prospects that we can get later on," he said. "If you build it, they will come."

Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston told The Dispatch the new rail spur is an asset as far as drawing new companies to the port. It allows the port authority to take full advantage of the property it has at its disposal, he said.

"It's an obvious benefit," he said. "It gives some more options of what can be done with the port property. … There's 90 acres down there that can be utilized better now because we're going to have a rail spur that does that."

In a press release issued Tuesday, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who helped negotiate for the funding on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said the projects funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help spur progress in the state.

"They will help create jobs, keep freight deliveries on time and boost economic development," Wicker wrote in a press release to The Dispatch. "These rail lines will help keep Mississippi moving."

McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.

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