RITA rail, port and I-49 efforts ongoing; another D.C. trip planned

Efforts and connections continue with federal and private-sector officials to fund and build railroads and improve port facilities in the Fort Smith region, according to comments during July’s meeting of the Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority (RITA).

Mat Pitsch, intermodal project manager for the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District (WAPDD), told the RITA board that scheduling a follow up meeting in Washington is in process. Pitsch was part of a seven-person delegation to meet June 11 with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and others to directly lobby for funding of Interstate-49 — including the Bella Vista bypass — RITA funding.

In addition to seeking more I-49 funding, RITA officials have an $8 million infrastructure plan of which they seek $5 million in federal funds. The $8 million includes $3.5 million to improve roads at Van Buren port facilities and to extend railroad from Arkhola to a Van Buren river port operation downstream. The remaining $4.5 million is for railroad work at Chaffee Crossing. U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., has submitted appropriation requests for the funding.

The plan also includes infrastructure support for a 50-acre economic development site at Chaffee Crossing and a 30-acre site near the Van Buren port.

RITA was formed in August 2009 with the broad goal to maximize the use of all forms of transportation — rail, barge, air, interstate — so as to reduce shipping costs and increase service options for regional business and industries.

Pitsch told the RITA board members gathered Wednesday (July 14) said he continues to be encouraged by the comments of U.S. Rep. John Olver, D-Mass., who has been in the House since 1991 and now serves as the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and related agencies. Pitsch said Olver was not happy when reminded that I-49 was labeled by Congress the nation’s top highway priority in 1991.

“He basically looked to his staff and said, ‘This is why people don’t like Washington,’” Pitsch recalled. “He (Olver) knew we had a meeting with LaHood later, and told us, ‘If you don’t get satisfaction there, call me again.’”

A return meeting to Washington could happen within the next six weeks, and Pitsch said it’s possible that Lincoln and Pryor might find the funding without another lobbying trip.

Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority Director Ivy Own said he and others are in “very intense and sensitive negotiations” with railroad and private industry officials to build or expand railroad access at Chaffee Crossing. If the deal happens, the federal dollars will be used to leverage that expansion or develop other rail and port needs in the overall development plan, Pitsch told the board.

Owen noted in a June 17 meeting that a new business could come to Chaffee Crossing requiring hundreds of rail cars a day to accommodate production.

“We have another client with legs under it,” Owen said in June. “It’s progressing. They have a signed contract in hand from the federal government to produce a product that will eventually end up at Chaffee and with the potential, and this is mind-boggling to me, of 300 rail cars a day. One hundred in, one hundred out and one hundred with raw materials. When you tell that to a rail company, that gets their attention. That’s one reason Union Pacific is now calling us.”

However, Owen was more tight-lipped Wednesday, declining to offer any specifics.

If the new company materializes, it would be one of several in a recent string of impressive new companies to sprout up at Chaffee Crossing. Mitsubishi Power Systems is set to build a $100 million plant beginning in October. Mars Petcare, Graphic Packaging and Umarex are building or have built multi-million, modern manufacturing and distribution operations within the past four years.

Also, a special RITA meeting is planned for Aug. 18 that could see up to 100 gather for an annual review of RITA’s progress and future plans. All city, county, state and federal elected officials from or representing Crawford and Sebastian counties have been invited, Pitsch said. The meeting will be held 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the Reynolds Room of the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.