Just saw this on trainorders, but the phrase "historical significance is not enough to save the site from demolition" that got my attention...Is there anything here worth saving or was it too far gone anyway?
"UPRR Completes Sale of Clinton, IA Former C&NW Shops
Author: TO News from Press Reports
The abandoned 23-acre Chicago & North Western Railroad car shop along Camanche Avenue in Clinton, Iowa, now belongs to the city in a move that officials say is a big step in plans for a major U.S. 30/67 renovation project through that stretch of Clinton.
After a year of purchase negotiations with Union Pacific Railroad, the Clinton City Council voted this week to pay $1.2 million for the rundown property located in the 1400-1800 blocks of Camanche Avenue.
City Attorney Bruce Johansen said the purchase represents one of the largest parcels of land Clinton needed to acquire for the $51 million project, which includes turning Camanche and Liberty avenues into one-way roads and opening up the railroad area for new economic development. “It’s a big piece of it,” he said.
The renovation project still is awaiting funding and approval from the Iowa Department of Transportation, or DOT, but Johansen said officials hope to hear soon about the DOTÂ’s funding of highway projects through the rest of this decade.
Clinton has received grants for land acquisition and brownfields cleanup at the old railroad site, and the DOT also will pay for the property when the road project begins. .The city also will swallow some of the costs, Johansen said, adding that he did not know what the exact amount will be.
City Administrator Jeff Kooistra and Mayor LaMetta Wynn were out of town and unavailable to comment about financial specifics. .Under the deal with Union Pacific, the city purchased 23 acres and two-thirds of the old building on site. The city is required to tear down the building, but the railroad will retain the property underneath the east third of the structure, Johansen said. .The acquisition is part of the long process to begin buying some houses and property along Camanche and Liberty Avenues using funding received in grants. Johansen said only a few houses have been purchased so far.
City project officials were waiting most anxiously to see what would happen with the Union Pacific property, a 100-year-old site once owned and operated by Chicago-Northwestern Railroad. .In June 2002, the Federal Highway Administration ruled that its historical significance was not enough to save the site from demolition. Gil Janes of the Howard R. Green Co. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, called the decision the “crossing of a significant hurdle” in the project, which he helps coordinate for the city.
The first phase of ClintonÂ’s highway improvements were finished a few years ago, with the road widening and renovation of Lincoln Way in the west end of town. The next step proposed is sprucing up Camanche Avenue, which continues the highway leading into the city. Traffic along this stretch goes past the old railroad yard, which a Union Pacific spokesman said closed August 4, 1995.
The site once employed as many as 600 workers, but when Union Pacific acquired Chicago& North Western Railroad, the yard was closed."
Affordable steam trips
