Sean C. Morgan
The owners of Albany and Eastern Railroad are spending $23 million plus in a “build-it-and-they-will-come” venture to rebuild the railroad line from Lebanon to Sweet Home.
Mark Russell, A&E general manager, presented A&E’s project to the Kiwanis Club Thursday evening at the Skyline Inn Restaurant.
He said the work will require closures of railroad crossings in Sweet Home in the coming months, the first at Pleasant Valley Road, which will be closed all day on Thursday, Aug. 29.
Russell said his company plans to work a long day, starting at 4 a.m. and finishing by 10 p.m., in an attempt to finish the work there in a single day before school starts.
The railroad is scheduling up to three days per crossing as it repairs the tracks from Lebanon to Sweet Home.
“I am going to apologize up front for the inconvenience,” Russell said.
A&E is tentatively scheduling work on the Ninth Avenue crossing for Oct. 17-19 and 12th Avenue for Oct. 24-26.
Clark Mill Road is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 7-9, followed by 43rd Avenue, Nov. 14-16; 47th Ave. for Nov. 21-23; 53rd Ave. for Nov. 28-30; and 54th Ave. for Dec. 5-7.
Repairs for the crossing on Poplar between Foster Lake and Foster School and the trestle over Highway 20 also are planned.
Eighteenth Avenue was completed a couple of years ago.
Past Santiam Lumber, between Lebanon and Sweet Home, it’s a “Field of Dreams”-type project, Russell said. Company officials are hoping that the railroad infrastructure improvements already under way between Lebanon and Sweet Home will help drive economic development and a market for rail transportation in Sweet Home.
Sweet Home has industrial land that’s underutilized or not utilized at all, Russell said. Lebanon is out encouraging industry to come to the area. He is hoping Sweet Home can encourage clean industry to locate here.
“It’s my vision for Sweet Home,” Russell said. “It’s Rick’s (Franklin, owner) vision for Sweet Home,” Russell said. “I would hope it’s Sweet Home’s vision for Sweet Home. What we need are wage-earning jobs that are going to support families.”
The condition of the rail line between Lebanon and Sweet Home has been poor for years, and was a concern in 2005 when a Redding, Calif. man, Don Kirk, proposed converting the old Sweet Home depot building, now located in a field behind McDonald’s restaurant, into a railroad museum and using the rail line for a tourist train. The condition of the tracks was such that trains could only move at very slow speeds, per Oregon Department of Transportation regulations, Kirk said at the time.
Russell said that Franklin is interested in eventually developing some type of attraction too.
The Rick Franklin Corporation took possession of the railroad in 2007, and it went to work improving rail lines that hadn’t had any attention for some 50 years, Russell said. The company improved a siding in Albany to help cut turnaround time for trains serving Oremet.
In 2008, the Rick Franklin Corporation was busy working on a slide in the Oakridge area, Russell said, then it began overhauling bridges and rails from Lebanon to Mill City, then it rehabilitated the rails between Albany and Lebanon.
Right now, the company is repairing rail line and replacing ties between Lebanon and Sweet Home.
The project is jumping ahead to Pleasant Valley early, Russell said, to minimize the project’s impact on the school year.
The project includes numerous private crossings as well, he said, but the company wants to keep the impact everywhere to a minimum.
The project “makes it safer for our train crews,” Russell said. “It was in pretty poor shape. As bad as it is out here, there were areas that were worse in Mill City and on the way to Albany.”
The project also improves vision with the removal of vegetation from around the rails, he said. “The primary reason for right-of-way clearing is public safety.”
There have been two accidents involving trains and vehicles since the Rick Franklin Corporation took possession of the rail line, Russell said.
Russell is not certain that the company will finish the project this year, he said. The dry season started late.
The project will total more than $23 million. Some $11 million in funding is from a Connect Oregon grant.