Riverhead gets almost $5 million to rehab rail spur
Pols: Project will get trucks off Long Island highways 3 comments below
A $4.8 million federal grant will let Riverhead Town live out its longtime dream of having freight trains running to and from the Enterprise Park at Calverton.
The entire cost of rehabbing the Calverton rail spur, which leads into the park, will be funded with federal stimulus money, lawmakers announced Tuesday.
“Not only will these funds create needed construction jobs in Riverhead and ease traffic congestion along highways, but it will lower the cost of transporting goods on Long Island,” U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
“This project is a win-win-win for Long Island,” said Congressman Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), who, along with Mr. Schumer, helped secure the funds. “Transporting goods by freight to and from Calverton will lower the costs of goods, create jobs and remove trucks from our crowded roadways.”
The spur, which hasn't been in use for a quarter-century, runs along Connecticut Avenue before linking up with the Long Island Rail Road's main line.
It was used by the Grumman corporation to transport materials when the company built Navy fighter jets at the site, which is now referred to as EPCAL. Grumman abandoned operations in 1994, with the Navy turning the land over to the town for economic development.
Above all, local officials are hoping the option to ship materials by rail will increase the attractiveness of Calverton to potential developers and business owners.
“This award is monumental in terms of infrastructure to support long-term economic development for EPCAL and the East End region,” said John Dunleavy, a Riverhead Town Board member.
The town, which was recently awarded a $650,000 grant from the state for the spur project, has begun preliminary planning and engineering work. It also expects to start negotiating with the Long Island Rail Road and the New York and Atlantic Railway, a freight company, according to Christine Kempner of the town Community Development Agency.
Supervisor-elect Sean Walter has backed off his campaign threats to not accept federal stimulus money for the town, in which he called the funds “China's money.” Even if Mr. Walter stuck to such a policy, it's expected that he would not get enough support on the Town Board.
Lawmakers noted that less than 2 percent of goods are brought to Long Island by train, the lowest percentage of any metropolitan area served by rail.
One example of a benefit of a rail spur, according to the press release issued by Mr. Schumer and Mr. Bishop, would be the price of stone, which is higher on Long Island than anywhere in the state.
“Building and road construction on Long Island uses millions of tons of stone,” the release reads. “This spur would help reduce the price of stone and has been requested by regional quarries for years.”
mwhite@timesreview.com
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3 comments found
railway : 11/18/2009
anything done as an improvement would be a plus.
traffic off of the roads? : 11/18/2009
Not so fast there. The majority of rail freight these days is in the form of intermodal containers. Which unlike TOFC/piggyback, ship double stacked. Which the rail network on Long Island has insufficient clearance for. So other than the mentioned stone shipments and some other bulk commodities (cement, trash, ash, lumber and ethanol for example) the benefit is not quite what it seems. Now if the Epcal property was used for some large spectator type purpose, you could actually take the train there. The LIRR is well equiped to move people. Modern freight, not so much.
Hurray! Great News : 11/17/2009
This is fantastic, congratulations to Chris Kempner and the town board for its hard work, and thanks to our elected reps for getting Riverhead a piece of stimulus monies.
