The Wisconsin Department of Transportation recently awarded five freight rail improvement projects $8 million in Freight Railroad Preservation Program grants and Freight Railroad Infrastructure Improvement Program loans.
Grants provide up to 80 percent of the cost of projects that help preserve freight rail service or rehabilitate track on publicly owned rail lines while loans can be used to improve rail infrastructure and build new rail-served facilities.
Northside Elevator Chippewa County received a $3 million loan to build 6,878 feet of track on Canadian National Railway’s Minneapolis Subdivision for a rail-served agronomy and feed terminal.
Rio Creek Feed Mill in Kewaunee County received a $1.5 million loan to improve efficiency of a facility serving the Fox Valley & Lake Superior Railroad.
DeLong Co. in Milwaukee County received a $1.5 million loan to install conveyance equipment at its new rail-served grain terminal at the Port Milwaukee.
Wisconsin and Southern Railroad Co. in Grant County received a $179,725 loan and a $1.4 million grant to replace an old timber trestle structure on the Prairie Subdivision with a steel and concrete version.
McDonald Companies in Brown County received a $492,791 loan to build 521 feet of spur track to serve a Green Bay warehouse.