Railway Revival?

Railway tunnels across the region will soon have a facelift.

In a massive transportation project that will change the shipping landscape in the U.S. rail tunnels across McDowell, Mercer, and Giles counties will be enlarged to handle double-decker freight cars.

The $151 million Heartland Corridor project, which will expand tunnels across Appalachia , is a public-private partnership.

Locally, 16 rail tunnels in McDowell County will be expanded along with one in Mercer County – the Cooper Tunnel at Bluestone – and four in the Giles County, Va. Area.

This month, Norfolk Southern began moving forward on construction design engineering for the tunnel clearance, Norfolk Southern Vice President Robert Martinez said. “And the Federal Highway Administration folks should be starting their field work related to the tunnel clearance this month as well.”

The railroad and the federal government are fooling the bill for the project, which also involved West Virginia , Virginia , and Ohio .

Norfolk Southern is investing $49.5 million in the Heartland Corridor project, Patrick Donovan, executive director of the West Virginia Public Port Authority, said.

When completed, the line will open up the shipping route from Norfolk , Va. , to Chicago .

In today's shipping industry, most cargo is moved in containers 40 feet long and 8.5 to 9.5 feet tall. These containers are moved across oceans by ships unloaded, then hauled by truck or double-stacked on freight trains to other destinations.

“In today's global market, all of the highest value commodities move in containers,” Martinez said.

Currently, a lack of clearance on tunnels in the southern West Virginia-Southwest Virginia region precludes double stacking.

The renovations of local tunnels will vary from structure to structure, Martinez said. In some situations, there will be realignment of the tracks, but no tunnel work.

“In other areas, because of the structural integrity of the tunnels, we will be able to notch modest corners into the round tunnels and the square containers in a double-stack freight will be able to move,” Martinez said. “In a couple of other places, there will be a so-called larger enlargement of the tunnel with liner replacement and the like … they will look the same, but will be larger.”

Due to the rural location of the tunnels, most of the work will take place out of the public's view.

Martinez said work on the tunnel clearance project is “imminent,” and Norfolk Southern will soon be going out to physically look at the properties where the tunnels are located.

McDowell County Economic Coordinator Rachel Lester said the tunnel project could stimulate some construction efforts in the county.

“We've always viewed the railroad as a resource in transportation,” Lester said. “We have to tap into that resource.”

Martinez said two agreements related to the Heartland Corridor project have been reached in recent months.

One agreement was reached between Virginia , West Virginia , and Ohio and the Eastern Land Division of the Federal Highway Administration. Martinez said the states agreed it would be most appropriate for the federal highway administration to be the project sponsor, since it was a multi-state and not a single state project.

A second agreement was also reached between Norfolk Southern and the Federal Highway Administration, “in which we agreed they were the appropriate project sponsor,” Martinez said.

Norfolk Southern is estimating the tunnel clearance project will be completed by 2009 or 2010.

--Samantha Perry (Bluefield Telegraph)