8 June 2006
Contractors Poised to Build Intermodal Rail Spur
Sault Ste. Marie - City of Sault Ste. Marie officials are
waiting on government funding to build a rail spur into the city's first intermodal terminal.
Jack Purvis, the operator of a new 60,000-square-foot distribution warehouse in the city's west end, wants to connect with
the Huron Central/Canadian Pacific (CP) line running east to Sudbury.
City planner Don McConnell says the 100-metre long rail connection can't be made without crossing the city's truck route
now under construction. Last week, city councillors approved a contract change order with Palmer Paving, builders of the city's new
truck route, to hire a railway contractor. Swift Railway has been subcontracted to do the work for a reduced price tag of $247,000.
The project is being funded in a three-way deal between the City, FedNor and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp
(NOHFC). But time is a factor, since the truck route scheduled for completion this summer. "Staff are very confident that we're
going to receive NOHFC and FedNor funding approval very soon," says McConnell.
The facility is part of the City's larger multi-modal scheme to divert rail-to-road container freight traffic
away from congested southern Ontario border points and over the International Bridge to the U.S. Midwest.
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