ROYAL CITY - The Royal Slope Railroad, which is available to move product from Royal Slope to market, will take two more steps toward operational status in the coming week.

The Port's Operator Selection Committee will meet during the week of Jan. 7 to discuss the process for selecting an operator. On Feb. 1, the Washington State Department of Transportation will put out a request for proposals to operators.

The Port has completed a $750,000 rehabilitation project that has left the 26-mile line that runs from the Port to Othello like new. The final inspection of the line will be the responsibility of the chosen operator.

The WSDOT owns the Royal Slope Railroad. It sat idle, with no rail service and no maintenance work, for approximately 25 years.

The Port was contacted by businesses that needed rail service to be competitive with those companies that have rail service. With the high fuel prices, it was making sense to use rail for their shipping needs.

"One company said they were going to leave if they didn't get rail service locally," Port Executive Director Cathy Potter said.

There was desperation for keeping businesses here. That, combined with knowledge that the area had been passed over time and time again by new businesses for lack of rail service, gave the Port additional persistence.

The Port got an agreement from WSDOT that allowed the Port access to the line for a clean-up. Port Commissioner Frank Mianecki and his equipment worked many hours removing rock slides, silt and debris.

This, at last, opened up the track so a Hi-Railer could go from Othello to Royal City.

The Port's governmental liaison in Olympia kept area legislators informed about what the Port was trying to do and also arranged a meeting with legislators on the transportation committee.

"We would never have had the funding if it wasn't for the legislative support that we received," Potter said.

The $750,000 from the WSDOT was approximately half of the engineer's estimate. A lot of time and effort was put in to developing the bid documents by Port Commissioner Alan Schrom to reduce the expenses and focus mainly on the work that was required to get the line operational.

Port Commissioner Davey Miller made himself available to take WSDOT and potential operators on the line with the Port's Speeder (4-seat, gas-powered rail car) so they could see that the line was accessible from one end to the other.

"After a grueling two years of working through a contract with WSDOT, bidding out the maintenance project, dealing with an unbudgeted washout and contracting the work out, the Port is proud to say the project is finished," Potter said.

The $750,000 was put to good use. Not only did the Port replace more than 2,600 cross ties and place close to 3,000 tons of ballast, it also surfaced, lined & dressed approximately 6,550 track feet.

The Port also repaired an unexpected, and therefore unbudgeted washout that cost more than $88,400 to fix.

In addition, the Port has on hand an inventory of $62,000 in rail supplies that includes: 540 additional cross ties, 221 crossing timbers, 400 feet of flange guard, 300 track bolts, 200 lock washers, 1,000 lag bolts and 18 kegs of rail spikes.