Business View Magazine - May 2016 67
an additional 974 acres of land. In total RVPR owns
and or controls approximately 2,000 acres.
Amiee Martelle is President and CEO of the Limited
Liability Company. When RVPR purchased the land
from the army, she says there was four million dol-
lars of deferred maintenance, “but we didn’t have to
overhaul the whole railroad,” she says. “We have rail
ranging from 67½ pound to 119 pound rail, so it was
just a matter of bringing some of the rail up to heavi-
er gauge, replacing ties that were not replaced and
bringing track back into service that had been taken
out of service while the Army was operating the rail.
In 2005, we obtained a $5.4 million dollar, 25-year
loan from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
that permitted us to rebuild our interchange yard with
the BNSF railroad, and upgrade some of our track. We
have also brought additional track back in service.”
RVPR has the ability to meet most long and short term
railcar storage, transloading, and switching needs,
with over 50 plus miles of track that is in operation
for storage of up to 2,500 railcars. Martelle says that
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
The Riverport Railroad
WHAT:
Railcar storage, switching, transloading,
repair, and cleaning
WHERE:
Savanna, Illinois
WEBSITE
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