PEDA Hopeful For Local Rail Car Jobs
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The Pittsfield Economic Development Authority is optimistic that the rail car contract will be awarded to a company looking to build in the Berkshires. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With an announcement expected from the state next month, local economic development officials remain optimistic a new rail car assembly plant could be located in the Berkshires.
But say that area industry will benefit even if it is not.
The $1.5 billion dollar state contract to build new cars for the MBTA's Red and Orange lines has been the subject of vigorous competition by several Massachusetts communities, who see the decade long project as a significant source of new manufacturing jobs.
Under the terms of the deal, whichever company is awarded the bid will need to develop a new facility within the commonwealth, which currently has no such manufacturing sites.
"We continue to hear from state officials that western Mass. the most likely location. That's where the governor and others would like to see that facility," Pittsfield Economic Development Authority's Executive Director Corydon Thurston told its board on Wednesday.
Bidders for the contract, which is expected to amount to more than 200 jobs over the next decade and could lead to continued rail car manufacturing after that, include a variety of foreign companies: Changyun Railway Vehicles, Hyundai Rotem, Kawasaki Rail Car, Alstom Transport, Bombardier and Constucciones y Auxillar de Ferrocarriles.
So far, Changyun and Hyundai have already indicated that they will locate in Springfield, if awarded the contract, and PEDA says at least one of the other companies has expressed a serious interest in a Berkshire site.
"We do have a favorite in the race," said PEDA board chair Maurice "Mick" Callahan, though the agency has been discreet about that company's identity.
Working with the 1Berkshire economic development agency, PEDA has shown bidders several local sites, including the William Stanley Business Park in Pittsfield, a former Crane Paper Co. plant in Dalton, and another former paper mill in Lee.
“Even a Springfield plant means business for Berkshire County companies,” said PEDA board member Douglas Crane, who has been headed the effort to attract one of the manufacturers to this area, beginning in late 2013.
As part of this campaign, PEDA and 1Berkshire also identified every local company which produces components that will be needed for the rail car assembly.
"It's going to mean some business for locals, we believe," said Thurston.
The MBTA is aiming to purchase at least 226 cars to substitute for the current cars on these two lines, which are both about four decades old. Of these, 152 would replace the current fleet of 120 Orange line cars, and another 74 for the Red line, with the possibility of increasing that order to 132.
In order to sweeten the pot, Pittsfield has earmarked up to two million dollars in subsidizing incentive funds, a mix of PEDA's own funds and an allocation from the city, and the county's four leading financial institutions, Berkshire Bank, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Mountain One, and Pittsfield Cooperative Bank have offered to pool resources to offer additional loans and incentives for any site in the Berkshires.
The exact date by which the state will award one bidder the lucrative contract is uncertain, but an announcement is expected to come some time in November.
In other business, PEDA is looking forward, to potentially seeing work finally begin on the construction of the long dormant Woodlawn Avenue bridge across the William Stanley property, which would connect Tyler Street more directly to East Street, and is considered crucial to the development of the business park on the former General Electric property.
The contract for replacing the bridge, which was ordered demolished by MassDOT in order to make double decker freight car travel possible across Massachusetts, is to be awarded by Oct. 23. At that time, it is anticipated that the winner of the bid will promptly begin pouring the concrete footings for the new bridge.
"Within a month, they should be underway," Thurston told the board on Wednesday, adding that once the footings are made work on the bridge can continue throughout the winter if the contractor sees fit. "We're cautiously optimistic that they will move full speed ahead."
"We know the low bidder, it's just a matter of the state working out the details, and whether the low bidder will actually accept."
At one time, construction of the new bridge was expected to be completed before the Summer of 2013, but easement issues and slow turning wheels in the design and bid process by the state Department of Transportation have delayed the project substantially. It was ultimately put out to bid the same week that Gov. Deval Patrick announced nearly $10 million dollars to be allocated for the development of the new Berkshire Innovation Center on an adjacent lot of the business park.
