Tunnel repairs start on Coos Bay rail line
ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) — Repairs start this week on unsafe tunnels that prompted closure of a key southwest Oregon rail line two years ago.
Inspectors recently checked the 110-mile line from Eugene to Coquille and found conditions have not deteriorated significantly over the past few months, said Martin Callery, spokesman for the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay. He said officials hope the line will be running again by the middle of next year.
"We're cautiously optimistic that we're going to get this back up and running so we can start serving the mills and other customers of this line," Callery told the News-Review newspaper of Roseburg.
The Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad closed the line in September 2007 with only a day's notice, citing safety problems in several tunnels. It said there wasn't enough traffic to justify repairs and petitioned the federal Surface Transportation Board to abandon the line.
Several mills and other businesses have had to ship their products from coastal plants by truck since then, increasing costs.
The federal Surface Transportation Board — following a yearlong squabble involving the railroad, the shippers and many politicians — ordered the railroad last fall to sell the line to the port. The board set a $16.6 million price tag, basing the figure on the scrap value if the line were abandoned.
Besides working on the tunnels, the port will have to repair several bridges, including a movable crossing over the Siuslaw River at Cushman. Moreover, the rail must be resurfaced in places and some ties, crossings and signals must be repaired or replaced.
LRL Construction Co. of Tillamook was selected through a bid process for the $2.5 million improvement project. The same company repaired a tunnel on CORP's Siskiyou line following a 2004 fire in the 3,100-foot-long tunnel above Ashland.
The port is seeking federal stimulus money for other system upgrades, including money for improvements on the Union Pacific-owned line between Coos Bay and Coquille.
(Copyright 2009 The Associated Press)
