Great Bend City Administrator Howard Partington referred to the group from Watco Companies and Sherwood Construction as the “A Team.” The two businesses, in a partnership with Great Bend to build and operate a transload facility, brought representatives to the city council meeting Monday night to provide more information on the shipping hub that will be located near the airport.
Watco acquired the K&O Railroad in 2001 and its roughly 850 miles of track stretching from Wichita to just west of the Colorado border.
Pat Cedeno, Senior Vice President Marketing for Watco, felt everyone was on board early to make adding a transload facility in Great Bend a reality.
Pat Cedeno Audio
Great Bend along with Garden City were selected by the Kansas Department of Transportation as locations to receive the shipping hubs that can make transporting commodities more cost effective.
Watco if a family-owned business based in Pittsburg, Kansas that owns 34 railroads and more than 65 transload facilities in the United States.
Cedeno did not feel the facility would create much more traffic in Great Bend.
Pat Cedeno Audio
Proposed design of transload facility.
The lots leased for the transload facility are roughly 30 acres. Cedeno says there will be three tracks at the proposed shipping hub that will be able to hold roughly 45 rail cars at once.
Watco is currently waiting to hear back from the State of Kansas on the funding application for the estimated $6.8 million project. Once the state sends a notice to proceed, the involved parties say they will begin to construct the facility as soon as possible.