Vote OKs grant administration pact for rail project
FORT SMITH — The Fort Smith Board of Directors moved forward with an agreement on Tuesday to facilitate a nearly $15 million project to make repairs along a railroad line.
The board unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a tri-party grant administration agreement among the city, the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad, and the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District during its regular meeting.
Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman said the city was awarded $8.5 million in grant funds through the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration.
City Administrator Carl Geffken wrote in a memo that the agreement is necessary because the city asked the district to perform all administrative tasks for a Transportation Investment Generating Economic
Recovery grant and contract because it regularly performs this work.
The Arkansas and Missouri
Railroad approached the city in 2017 to collaborate to apply for federal transportation grants, Geffken wrote. The company wanted to rehabilitaate the Arkansas River railroad lift bridge and wooden trestles along its line from Fort Smith to Missouri
to ensure the railroad’s ability to meet its customers’ needs. The lift bridge malfunctioned and would not open or close three years before the time of the application. The cost to complete this work is more than $14.2 million.
The grant was one of several available in 2017 that would mostly pay for the work, according to Geffken.
“In March 2018, the city was notified that our application was approved,” Geffken wrote. “The Federal Railroad Administration would fund $8.5 million, or 60% of the project, and [Arkansas and Missouri Railroad] would fund the remaining 40%, or $5.7 million of the project.”
The agreement states that the city will serve as the recipient of the grant to receive, distribute and account for all grant funds. However, the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District will administer these grant funds.
Among the district’s tasks will be to manage the procurement of engineering services, as well as the procurement and supervision of the construction contract, with reference to the repairs and improvements to the Arkansas River railroad lift bridge. It also will manage the procurement and administration of the engineering/construction contract for the replacement of the timber approaches at two railroad bridges in Crawford County north of the Arkansas River. All of these are subject to the concurrence of the city, the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad and required federal authorities.
For performing these and other duties, the district will be entitled to receive a $120,000 fee, according to the agreement. Dingman said at the meeting that this fee will be paid with the grant funds.
The Arkansas and Missouri Railroad, meanwhile, will provide all remaining funding for the project, among additional responsibilities, the agreement states.