Work starts on new Geiger spur

AIRWAY HEIGHTS – A new rail line that could bring new opportunity to the West Plains is a step closer to reality.

Public officials broke ground July 21 for a long-awaited stretch of rail line near Spokane County’s Airway Heights Industrial Park that could help preserve about 400 factory jobs.

The new Geiger Spur rail connection is being built to replace a line that runs through Fairchild Air Force Base, after the base declined to renew its lease with Spokane County for that line.

The new line will run about 3.5 miles from the Palouse River Coulee City Railroad by Craig Road to the Geiger Spur by McFarlane Road.

Several manufacturing companies use the current line to haul industrial supplies. State Department of Transportation officials say the new line will continue to supply these businesses, and could even run cars daily as opposed to the current line’s weekly runs through Fairchild Air Force base.

Two firms – Metals Fabrication Co. and Seaport Steel – order in several hundred rail car loads of steel beams annually.

“I know how rare rail access real estate is in Seattle and Portland and other big towns,” Metals Fabrication co-owner Dan Weaver said. “I’m looking at this as a very positive advance for the future economic development of the area.”

Weaver has 75 employees whose jobs all depend on the consistency of the railroad operation.

“Without it we would be hard-pressed to do business. And now we have a permanent way of solving a long-term transportation issue – solved as far as our company is concerned. We’re quite excited about it,” Weaver said.

Several homes occupying land on the rail line were bought to make way for the railroad.

A new transload facility is also in the works for construction along the line. A transload facility is “kind of like a park and ride for trains and trucks,” said WSDOT project manager Kirk Fredrickson. Businesses can upload or unload their supplies at this facility, receiving or sending shipments. No new businesses have indicated they’d like to move in, said WSDOT officials.

The city of Airway Heights has a long-term involvement with the project.

“This has been one of the No. 1 public policy projects,” said Mayor Matthew Pederson. The city lobbied for funding for the project in Olympia and in Washington, D.C., several years ago.

The new rail line, coupled with the transload facility, is a good way of inviting industrial business to the West Plains region and to the Spokane region, Pederson said.

“It’s helping create a very important transportation link within the industry,” he said.