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New rail project in Spokane aims to recruit Boeing factory

By The Spokesman-Review
Published: November 21, 2018, 8:40am

SPOKANE — Spokane county, city and airport officials are building a $2 million short-line rail on the West Plains with hopes it can help attract more aerospace and manufacturing companies.

The 1-mile track will link with the Geiger Spur and run east across Craig Road onto Spokane International Airport property.

Spokane County Commissioner Al French said rail access and a planned transload facility — where shipments are transferred from trucks to rail or vice versa — are both key to growing aerospace and shipping industries in the West Plains.

Newman Lake-based contractor Wm. Winkler Co. is building the rail line, which is funded through a Legislature grant awarded to the airport. Construction is expected to be completed next year.

“The transload facility will complete a trifecta of air, rail and road services that will be built in the West Plains,” French said.

Several railroads have expressed interest in operating the proposed facility, which would cost more than $4 million. The county will seek state grants to help pay for it.

There’s potential for the current Geiger Spur rail operator to also operate the transload facility, but that hasn’t been agreed upon yet, said French.

Washington Eastern Railroad, LLC, a subsidiary of Utah-based Western Group entered a 10-year lease agreement with Spokane County last month to operate the more than 5-mile-long Geiger Spur. The spur connects to the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad’s CW Branch and connects Cheney to Coulee City.

The West Plains Public Development Authority is banking on the idea that all the infrastructure improvements, along with available land, a taxiway system at the airport and an adjacent rail line could strengthen a future pitch to have Boeing once again operating a manufacturing plant on the West Plains.

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