(erielack) (NJ) Morristown railroad abandons its plan for a debris depot

["Gary R. Kazin" <gkazin_@_yahoo.com>]

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/111008992618820.xml?starledger?nmr

Morristown railroad abandons its plan for a debris depot
County may study rail trash-hauling
Sunday, March 06, 2005
BY LAWRENCE RAGONESE
Star-Ledger Staff

A Morristown-based railroad has scrapped plans for a 600 ton-a-day
construction and demolition debris rail depot in Roxbury and will end its
legal battle against Morris County.

Gordon Fuller, chief operating officer for the Morristown & Erie Railway,
said he still thinks hauling debris to out-of-state landfills by rail is a
good concept but said his company's offering might have been a little
ahead of its time.

"Our contractor got ahead of himself, jumped the gun on the plan and made
everyone's life miserable on this issue," said Fuller, referring to
Northeast & Central Rail Transport.  "We'll back off on this, wait until
the future when the need is better identified."

That might not be too far off.  The county Municipal Utilities Authority
may do a feasibility study on hauling trash by rail, as part of a
comprehensive plan for the county's future waste disposal, MUA Executive
Director Glenn Schweizer said Monday.

Morris County does not have a disposal facility for construction debris. 
An attempt several years ago by a Montville firm to locate such a plant
adjacent to its massive auto junkyard in Pine Brook, to sort and recycle
or dump the materials, ran into staunch local opposition.

Schweizer said contractors now must either bring debris to the county's
two trash stations or haul larger quantities to so-called class B
recycling facilities, which recycle individual materials such as concrete,
wood and asphalt.

Morris County purchased two defunct rail lines, the High Bridge and Dover
& Rockaway lines, from Conrail in 1986 to encourage commercial growth and
to provide an alternative to truck traffic.  The county entered a lease
agreement with Morristown & Erie in 1986 and renewed the lease, via
bidding, in 1997 and again in 2002 for use of those lines.

The two sides had a mostly amicable relationship during that period.  But
the peace ended in February 2004, when tree clearing and site work started
for a construction debris station off Berkshire Valley Road, along the
High Bridge line.

Roxbury officials called the county, which went to court to stop the
project.

The rail firms intended to build a facility for 600 tons of construction
debris daily, with a potential for 1,000 tons.  The material would have
been trucked to the rail yard in 46 to 77 deliveries daily, with the
material then loaded on trains and shipped from Roxbury to Ohio.  That
possibility alarmed Roxbury officials.

The county charged that M&E was violating the terms of its lease, which
prohibits making alterations to the leased rail property or entering into
agreements for its use by a third party without county consent.

Fuller, whose firm has cut ties with Northeast & Central Rail Transport,
said this week he regrets the tensions between his firm and the county
that resulted from the rail depot proposal.  But he thinks the concept
still has merit.

"It would be better to have it (debris) shipped by rail than have lots of
trucks hauling it along our highways," Fuller said.

Schweizer agreed the concept is worth considering but said there are
potential obstacles, such as the proximity of out-of-state dump sites to
rail lines.  He also said the county, by court order, must re-bid
management of the county's trash stations in Parsippany and Mount Olive
every five years.  The county might be hesitant to invest in a rail depot
that a new management firm might not want to use, he said.

Morristown & Erie also must bid to lease the county's rail line, with its
current contract running through 2007.

Lawrence Ragonese is a reporter in the Morris County bureau. He can be
reached at lragonese_@_starledger.com or at (973) 539-7910.

Copyright 2005 NJ.com. All Rights Reserved.

Gary R. Kazin
DL&W Milepost R35.7
Rockaway, New Jersey

http://www.geocities.com/gkazin/index.html


	
		
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