The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) recently awarded the Cleveland & Cuyahoga Railway a $300,000 grant to repair a stone arch culvert.
In June 2020, the embankment adjacent to the culvert at milepost 14.03 on the railroad’s Mahoning Subdivision failed, requiring the company to perform emergency repairs to bring the rail line back into service. Based on the condition of the culvert, CCRL took additional action to stabilize the structure and completed the
Further repairs will be required to prevent additional deterioration to the culvert and keep the rail line in service at this location, officials said.
“This project represents the epitome of what a worthy public-private partnership should be, one wherein commerce is protected, and the public interest is served,” said David Arganbright, VP of Government Affairs, OmniTrax, Inc. “When the Cleveland & Cuyahoga learned that a culvert on the line serving the Nestle plant was now in danger of imminent collapse, the railroad enlisted the aid of Koppers Engineering to assess the repairs that would be needed.
“The challenge was that as important as Nestle is to the community and the living wage jobs it provides, it is a relatively small railroad customer whose revenues would not justify committing to a huge engineering expense,” Arganbright added. “This issue was immediately brought to the attention of ORDC who understood the situation and were sympathetic to our plight. With ORDC’s commitment, management agreed to proceed with the repairs on a 50/50 cost sharing basis up to $300,000.”
