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With a crisp, hot and messy $27 million dollar check in the clutches of the Railroad, they have already started on rail yard staging ground part II, except it is not on the edges of town, but more centralized then ever. While it has been used for probably as long as the 8th street location, it is not as glamorous or as close to a Hilton, in fact it is only a few feet away from a refugee church, a mediocre sandwich shop, Avera’s parking ramp and about two blocks from where I write this blog. New drainage and RR ties are going in. As we all suspected, freeing up the 10 acres for a parking lot downtown will only transfer the rail traffic to other parts of downtown (that no one cares about or has to see). Rail traffic will probably increase (next to a major hospital and main north/south traffic route).

The relocation project has accomplished NOTHING! All it has done is create more headaches for people when dealing with train traffic and bilked $27 million from federal taxpayers. If the mayor thinks this is one of his greatest accomplishments, he must be working in quality assurance for the Sioux Santee tribe growing facility.

8 Thoughts on “The upgrades to the ‘NEW’ staging yards have begun

  1. duggersd on September 7, 2015 at 6:43 pm said:

    Am I correct that the government wanted the RR to move? If so, then it seems to me it would be up to the gov’t. to pay for the move. Is this the same money that Senator Daschle got for them before he lost to Thune? I seem to recall there were several places mentioned to move it to and the towns involved turned it down.

  2. The D@ily Spin on September 7, 2015 at 8:11 pm said:

    Seems like trying to look good by moving dirt. Can’t trust strong mayor. I still believe federal funds will be misappropriated like for the levee work. Subliminal plan for a new city hall could be implemented. Shouldn’t happen because post city charter revocation could be combined city & county government. Everything will be about the courthouse and justice center.

  3. OldSlewFoot on September 8, 2015 at 9:15 am said:

    This must be just track repair. The actual rail yard is going to be built across just north of Great Bear on the west side of Rice Street. There will be two new 3,000 ft tracks parallel to the existing main track out there.

  4. Slew, you are correct. But they will still have to have several smaller staging areas throughout the city, especially downtown. This is one they used quite a bit in the past, but I have a feeling, in two years, it is going to get a lot busier. In other words, we have solved nothing except blow $27 million dollars of federal tax money.

  5. Cameraman on September 8, 2015 at 10:22 am said:

    Our research has found the BNSF is going to be using this rail yard for years to come because it has the only scale necessary. They will not be moving the scale to the new location so cars must be split and moved around in order to use the scale. This rail line goes all the way down to 26th street and I-229.

  6. The D@ily Spin on September 8, 2015 at 4:20 pm said:

    Couldn’t this wait till next spring? It’ll be a muddy mess with contaminated runoff draining into the Sioux River.

    It sure looks like Strong Mayor is trying to land more construction before the end of his term. I’ve often wondered what his take might be from arranged contracts that are non-competitive bid.

  7. This is not the work of the railroad. This is the construction of a parking lot for a church. There is replacement of old storm sewer that is happening. There is some replacement going on of some railroad ties but that has nothing to do with the work seen in this picture. A retention pond has to be put in for the new parking lot. I have no knowledge of work being done for a staging area yet.

  8. Thanks for the update! Wondered why there lot was torn up.

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