DAVENPORT, Iowa — The city of Davenport has reached an agreement with Canadian Pacific that will bring the Mississippi River community as much as $10 million to mitigate impacts of the proposed CP merger with Kansas City Southern.
The Quad Cities Times reports Davenport’s aldermen will vote next week on the deal, which is contingent on approval of the merger. It will include $8 million for infrastructure improvements such as a grade crossing “quiet zone” for a roughly 2½ stretch in downtown, as well as creating pedestrian access to the riverfront area, which includes a large amount of parkland. Another $2 million will go to a grade-crossing separation project near a city waste water treatment plant and the CP yard in Davenport, if the city can obtain other grant money needed for that project.
The agreement is likely good for far more than the Surface Transportation Board would likely require in approving the merger, Davenport’s city attorney said in a memo. In return, Davenport would not oppose the CP-KCS union.
“The City and CP have developed a good working relationship over the past several years,” that memo read, and that is borne out by this agreement and CP’s commitment to investing in our community and being willing to proactively address some potential concerns that may arise from their pending acquisition.”
The neighboring community of Bettendorf reached its own $3 million deal with CP last month [see “Bettendorf, Iowa, approves agreement …,” Trains News Wire, July 7, 2022]. Both those communities are projected to see traffic increase from eight to 22 trains a day under the merger. Similar negotiations are continuing elsewhere.
In contrast, a group of eight Chicago suburbs projected to see CP freight traffic increase from three to 11 trains daily is seeking up to $9.5 billion to mitigate impact of the merger [see “Chicago suburbs seek $9.5 billion …,” News Wire, March 1, 2022]. Those communities have a population of about 300,000; Davenport and Bettendorf, combined, are about 140,000.
Does CP keep all its signal equipment and bungalows above the highest flood?
In downtown Davenport, the signal equipment sits on 3.5 feet high pedestals. In places CP has added rip rap on both sides of the ballast to control wave erosion.
Oddly enough if you look at a recent sat image of Davenport on Google, the riverfront is flooded!
Good signal equoipment on pedestals. Had never thought about rip rap ilmiting wave action. Thanks for that info. Hard to protect any switch machines unless they can be made water resistant.
If you look at the picture at the top of the article, you can see a good example of the rip rap they lined the ballast with.
Positive to see communities working together with business for the benefit of both. Still have concerns about the line through that area as the ROW is mere feet above flood stage and in places is less than 100 yards from the shoreline. That park they are providing access to is a flood mitigation zone in Davenport.
While floods are less common that they were pre-ACoE management, it does tend to spill over its banks periodically and flood the ROW. The last time, CP had to run at 5mph and made some nice waves.