Rail link construction starts

Construction is starting this fall on a new $1 million rail connection designed to ease traffic delays at 11 downtown crossings, says Joe Fratesi, the City's Chief Administrative Officer.

Building the 4,500-foot link should take two months, the CAO says.

The rail connection, announced in May, will allow rail traffic to move directly from the bridge into CN's Sault Ste. Marie rail yard, ending the complicated routing of trains downtown on their way to the yards.

(To see SooToday.com's original coverage of the announcement, including a map showing the location of the new link, please click here.)

Legal manoeuvre cuts red tape

On Monday night, City Council undertook a legal manoeuvre to speed up the process.

Councillors voted to allow the City to be used as a conduit to transfer a parcel of land from Algoma Steel Inc. to Algoma Central Railway Inc.

Normally, such a transfer could take months because the severance application must go through the City's Committee of Adjustment.

Transferring the land to the City and then to the railway cuts a lot of red tape, says City Solicitor Lorie Bottos.

Not a common occurrence

"Although the City has become involved in facilitating such transfers in the past, it is not a common occurrence," Bottos says.

"However in this case, the importance of seeing the project move forward quickly and to remove a potential safety problem warrants proceeding in this matter."

Mayor John Rowswell crossed the International Bridge the other day and reports that preliminary construction work has already started in the area.

Truck route update

For the many SooToday readers who've also been following the truck route issue, here's a synopsis of recent developments:

- on July 17, the Ministry of the Environment asked the City to complete a noise assessment study on the proposed route

- that study is expected to be completed and submitted to the Ministry of the Environment by the middle of this month

- The Environment Ministry then has until mid-December to respond

For background on the truck route issue, please click here.

To see our map of the proposed route, click here.

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