BNSF gives cost breakdown of project

Totals are preliminary until engineering work complete

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

By REBECCA O'HALLORAN

The Register-Mail

GALESBURG - The city of Galesburg received BNSF Railway Company's preliminary plans Friday for an expansion to its diesel shop, should the state approve the expansion of the Galesburg Enterprise Zone.

The $37 million project, likely not to begin until 2007, includes $20 million for an expansion to the diesel repair shop, $9 million for a new locomotive wheel truing and wash facility, $6 million for track work that would include telecommunication and signal work, $1 million for a new service track office and $1 million in miscellaneous expenses, according to Director of Community Development Roy Parkin.

The letter states the wheel truing and wash facility wouldn't be complete until the second quarter of 2008 and an addition to the diesel repair shop wouldn't be final until the second quarter of 2009.

Fifty new jobs would be created in the overall mechanical department.

Steve Forsberg, a spokesman for BNSF, said the numbers aren't final and the letter was provided as a "courtesy" to the city.

"You don't know until you get all of the final engineering done," he said. "Only then can you have firmer numbers."

The city will include the letter in an enterprise zone application to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

If DCEO approves the 555-acre zone expansion, BNSF would benefit from a 100 percent property tax break on any new improvement in the area for a 10-year period, not to exceed $1 million per taxing body. Permit fees normally applied by the city would be waived, as would the sales tax on any building material purchased in the state.

Letters of support from community businesses and some taxing bodies also will be included in the application, which Parkin hopes to submit by mid-week.

Mark Harris, spokesman for DCEO, said the entire application review process usually takes 25 business days.