LR Port OK’d to pay $1.8M to add to rail

A project to build an additional mile of railroad track at the Port of Little Rock will cost $1.8 million.

The authority’s board of directors approved a resolution Wednesday authorizing Bryan Day, the authority executive director, to sign a contract with McGeorge Contracting Co. of Pine Bluff, which submitted the lowest of five bids opened March 6.

A mix of proceeds from a $4.5 million bond issue and a $6.5 million federal grant will pay for the project, the first of three designed to make the port more competitive.

The spur will allow the port to store a unit train, which is a 60-car train carrying the same material, and also provide rail to a new wharf the port expects to begin building this summer at the slackwater harbor.

A third project will build a warehouse, office space and systems to allow cargo to be transferred between barges and rail cars.