THE NEW RUTLAND RAILYARD
OR
BUILDING IN A MUD HOLE
Our story begins in the 1970’s with a thriving aircraft blade manufacturer located in the City of Rutland.
The Rutland General Electric workforce was highly skilled and incredibly productive. So, when the word came from Lynn, Massachusetts that a second, even bigger, manufacturing facility was to be built in Rutland, the search for a suitable site was on.
Realtors, engineers and local development organization officials scoured the Rutland City/ Rutland Town landscape searching for a building site. A site located on land owned by the Rutland Economic Development Corporation was selected and the work to assess the suitability of the location began.
Local officials were disappointed when they received the news the chosen site was not suitable for building development. The site investigation revealed the soils are severely restrictive for development because of the presence of a high water table and slow permeability.
The location selected by the GE officials is the same area of Rutland Town where the Rutland Redevelopment Authority is pushing ahead to build a $100,000,000.00 plus new Railyard and engine repair facility.
In laymen’s terms, the site is a big mud hole. General Electric engineers and consultants were unable to locate bedrock, no matter how deep they went. No bedrock means no footing to support the weight of the building. This is the same location where the proposed Railyard is to be built.
In the 1980’s the State of Vermont after much rancor with local landowners built the US Route 4 Bypass. During the construction of the bridge over the Creek Road a landslide occurred when the saturated sub-soils could not support the weight of the stockpiled earth and a gapping hole the size of a two-story home opened up and swallowed up the stockpile.
The US Route 4 Bypass is the only four lane divided highway in the State of Vermont with an at grade intersection with a railroad track.
Once again, the wet saturated mucky soil conditions, in the area of the proposed Railyard, proved too wet for construction. Like the GE tests ten years prior, the State officials drove their pilings into the ground only to have them float back up through the muck. So the state built the new road over the existing rail line, declared the road open and went home.
In the 1990’s the Town of Rutland constructed a sewer line from the Holiday Inn through a section of the proposed Railyard to a connection point adjacent to the Vermont State Fairgrounds. The company that built the sewer line for the Town did not heed Town’s warnings as to the severity of the high water table and consequently went bankrupt as a result of having to send its profits on well point de-watering equipment.
The de-watering equipment was necessary due to the severely saturated soil conditions. The equipment was used to suck the water out of the ground so a section of sewer pipe could be laid on the ground in the trench before being covered. Without the equipment the trench would fill with ground water preventing the laying of any pipe.
In the year 2005 during the construction of Michaels Arts & Crafts at the Green Mountain Shopping Plaza, a section of Farrell Road collapsed due to the fact the sub soils encountered were considerably wetter than anticipated.
When the contractor excavated the bank away from the edge of the road, the road collapsed because the underlying soils were simply too wet to support the weight of the paved roadway. This location is nearly 1000 feet from the proposed Railyard and even here the soils are so inundated with water that well point de-watering is being used to dry up the subsurface in order to develop the property.
The proposed Railyard property contains approximately 98.52 acres of land (north of the bypass). The parcel shape is very irregular. The southwesterly limits of the parcel abut Otter Creek for approximately 1,250 feet. The easterly boundary abuts the westerly limits of the Vermont Railroad right of way for some 2,537 feet. The southerly limits of the landholding lie adjacent to the US Route 4 limited access highway right of way for a total of some 1,987 feet. The northerly property line is formed by the Town of Rutland/City of Rutland municipal line.
Topography may be described as very gently sloping to somewhat rolling. Several low-lying wet areas situated in the westerly section of the property are relatively level. The more sloping areas are found in the central and northeasterly sections of the property. The gentler terrain is found adjacent to Otter Creek and the west-central sections of the parcel. Slope phases generally range from 0% to approximately 8%. Slopes fall generally in a westerly to southerly direction toward Otter Creek.
The predominate soils found on the proposed Railyard property include the Belgrade silt loams. These soils are characterized as moderately to severely restrictive to development because of seasonal high water tables and slow permeability. Considerable areas of Ninegret fine sandy loams, Windsor loamy sands and Saco mucky silt loams were noted. The Windsor soils hold only slight to moderate limitations to development, however, the Ninegret soils are severely restricted by wet soil conditions. The Saco soils are severely limited in utility as a result of wetness and seasonal flooding. Other soils noted on the proposed Railyard property include the Deerfield loamy sands, Linwood mucks, Hartland silt loams, Tioga fine sandy loams, Middlebury loams, Hamlin silt loams, Teel silt loams, Limerick silt loams and Pawling silt loams. Only Hartland soils have slight limitations for development.
The Deerfield soils are moderately limited by wet soils. The remaining soils are severely restricted by both wet soils and seasonal flooding. The Pawling soils are also characterized by ponding conditions.
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
Extensive hydrology tests on the proposed Railyard property indicate the presence of water. A hydrologist’s report estimates production levels of approximately 400 gallons per minute or 570,000 gallons per day. This priceless water source would be lost if the downtown Rutland City Railyard is relocated to Rutland Town.
This unique pristine water source is located on lands slated to be dredged and converted into wetlands as on-site mitigation for the Railyard construction. This land and more importantly, the water approximately 200 feet beneath it, would be laid to waste in the name of regional cooperation and economic progress. At present there is no development within a half-mile radius of the identified 400 gpg well site.
Out of 1,600 plus parcels of land in the Town of Rutland there are only 28 wells (residential & commercial) that yield more than 100 gallons per minute. Only a few are free of development and it is unlikely any could be permitted as a public drinking water source by the State, due to isolation zone requirements.
Neither the Town of Rutland nor the Rutland Redevelopment Authority owns the proposed Railyard property. The owner of property granted the Town of Rutland permission to perform the water study on the property but has never granted the Rutland Redevelopment Authority permission to step foot on the property.
The Rutland Redevelopment Authority has been evaluating the proposed Railyard site for the past six years without the owners’ permission. If approved by the voters of Rutland Town the Rutland Redevelopment would have the authority to use Eminent Domain to take the property away from the owner and then plunder millions of dollars building in a big mud hole.
YOU CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE
The Railyard relocation is not good planning. The Railyard relocation will not result in less trains entering Rutland City. The Railyard relocation will, in fact, result in more trains entering Rutland City. The increased numbers of trains will mean increased traffic delays at rail crossings, which will result in more vehicle emissions entering our environment. No rail grade crossing with public highways will be eliminated. The Train that now blocks South Main Street in the City of Rutland at the Park Street intersection will stay, and if the Railyard is successful, will be blocked more frequently.
The Railyard relocation is not smart growth when you destroy approximately 100 acres of active farmland and increase vehicle/train delays by locating the Railyard on the south west of the City of Rutland.
Apparently, the tens of millions of dollars that will come to the City of Rutland to build a new highway (from the bypass to West Street in Rutland City) and to fund economic development efforts in the designated new “Growth Areas” in the city, make this smart-growth, not!
If the Railyard were built to the west of the City of Rutland there would be no synergy for a new road into the City.
For all the legitimate reasons cited in the US Congressional Record by the Executive Director of the Rutland Redevelopment Authority, the Rutland City Railyard should be moved but not to the proposed location southwest of Rutland City, for two reasons.
First, because the site is an incredibly poor location for construction and secondly because the geography dictates all rail switching traffic would have to go thru Rutland City to get to the new Railyard.
The Railyard would be built off the so-called Bennington rail line that only has one train per week, on Thursdays. The Railyard should be built to the west of Rutland City, period.
The reason is very simple. The vast majority of all freight entering Rutland City (or the SW Railyard in the future) comes from the west and the north. By building the Railyard in a location west of Rutland City all of the north and west freight would not have to go through Rutland City, period.
A Railyard to the west of Rutland City would truly result in smart growth accolades, less vehicle/train delays, less vehicle pollution entering our environment and the more efficient movement of goods and services in the Rutland economy.
Simply put, the Rutland Redevelopment Authority wants it’s cake and it wants to eat it, too. The RRA gets the designated “growth areas” in the City and a “new highway” and the “redevelopment” of the current Railyard in the City.
When the Vermont Railroad officials considered locations for a new Railyard in the early 1990’s, they did not consider the proposed sw location that the Rutland Redevelopment Authority has selected as the best site.
The Vermont Railway officials, the people in the business of running a railroad, considered sites in Center Rutland and in Proctor to the west of Rutland City. A Railyard in either location would mean a vast reduction in the number of freight trains entering Rutland City daily. Less trains means the better movement of vehicles along US Routs 4 & 7 and local roads.
Additionally, by building the Railyard to the west of Rutland City it would be closer to its main benefactor, OMYA. It is no secret; OMYA is driving the need to expand freight service in the Rutland City Railyard.
I believe I have raise enough issues against locating the Railyard to the proposed sw location, to give you something to think about while you are sitting in a long line of idling vehicles, waiting for the train to cross the road.
Prepared by Joseph Zingale Jr.
For the Rutland Town Planning Commission and anyone else that will listen.
2-19-06