Alabama Railroad Spur Construction Complete, Service Begins for Facility
Written by Kyra Senese, Managing Editor
TripTek Construction LLC
Alabama officials announced that construction of a local railroad spur has been completed.
The city of Atmore, Alabama, awarded TripTek Construction LLC a contract to build the rail spur in April of 2022, according to a local news report.
The spur connects the main CSX rail line to the Coastal Growers LLC peanut shelling facility. The city received a $2 million grant to construct the spur in May of 2021.
Miles Smith, TripTek’s owner and project construction manager, said construction was completed on time and transit vehicles began serving Coastal on Feb. 10.
In September of 2022, Smith said the construction process would begin by placing casing over the existing utilities and installing new casing for future utilities, the report said.
He explained that the casing was installed to protect the water and sewer lines so that the rail spur could pass over them. Alabama Power Co. raised the transmission lines behind Masland Carpets so that trains could pass beneath them, the report said.
Other companies collaborated on the project as well, including Verizon and West Escambia Utilities.
Grading and excavation work was carried out over the course of a couple months after the utility work was completed. The process included hauling in 15,000 yards of suitable material and hauling out approximately 30,000 yards of unsuitable material, as well as hauling in approximately 7,500 tons of stone.
TripTek coordinated with CSX on work to install a switch on the main line, which is set to be complete in October of 2023, the report said. Construction of the rail spur began after the base part of the rail line was completed.
