Flood Control and Wine Train Strike Deal

The flood project and Napa Valley Wine Train have reached an agreement that will allow a major railroad relocation to begin this fall, both parties announced.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to award a contract for $40 million or more this summer to move track, build two railroad bridges and make depot modifications.

These changes will remove the railroad as an impediment to flood waters and set the stage for excavation of a flood bypass channel and the start of flood protection along Napa Creek.

But first the local flood project and Wine Train had to agree to the details of the railroad relocation.

“This agreement serves the community by moving us closer to flood protection and by preserving the transportation corridor that is of great value to all of us now and in the future,” Greg McManus, CEO and president of Wine Train, said in a prepared statement.

The federal contract will raise about a half mile of track between Third Street and Soscol Avenue to the north. The current bridge over the Napa River will be elevated and a new bridge built over the planned bypass.

The railroad work is expected to begin this fall and continue through 2010, assuming federal funding is sufficient to keep the project on schedule./Register

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