Port of Warden Receives Funding from Grant County for Road Infrastructure Project - Focuses on Improving Road & Rail Infrastructure in Warden, WA

WARDEN, Wash., June 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Port of Warden (Grant County Port District No. 8) was recently awarded $175,000 in Strategic Infrastructure Program (SIP) funding from Grant County for the Road Design & Engineering Portion of Phase 2 of the Port of Warden Rail & Road Infrastructure Expansion Project.

According to Dale Pomeroy, the Chair of the Port of Warden, the SIP grant award from Grant County will help to set the stage for the Port of Warden's Federal Funding Request for $6 million for the "Port of Warden Rail & Road Infrastructure Expansion Project", which would further expand the rail ($3.5 million) and road ($2.5 million) infrastructure within the Port of Warden and to port-owned industrial zoned properties on the southwest side of Warden, WA to handle the increasing growth in freight from industrial, food processing and agricultural shippers. 

The above Phase 2 project follows $2 million in state funding that the Port of Warden received in the 2015-2017 biennium for Phase I of this project (completed in 2019), which helped to construct approximately one mile of new rail storage siding track in the Port of Warden along the Columbia Basin Rail Line, which runs between Connell and Moses Lake.

In the past few years, a great deal of economic development and freight growth have occurred at the Port of Warden, including a canola crushing and canola oil refining facility, a new fertilizer distribution facility, additional fresh produce packing and frozen and dehydrated food processing, and the associated warehousing for these products. In particular, a number of major food processors, cold storage warehousing companies, fresh produce packers and agri-business companies have facilities in the Warden Port District (Grant County Port District No. 8) including: Lamb Weston, Viterra, Washington Potato Company, Skone & Connors, Jensen Farms Produce, Baker Produce, Greater Pacific Cold Storage, Country Morning Farms, CHS SunBasin Growers, BFI Native Seeds, The McGregor Company, Skone Irrigation, Pure Line Seeds, Brotherton Seed, and Columbia Basin Railroad. In fact, Viterra's Canola Oilseed Processing Facility in Warden, WA "is the largest commercial-scale canola processing facility west of the Rocky Mountains. It is one of only two large-scale canola processing facilities in North America using expeller-press technology. The facility is designed to produce over 300,000,000 pounds of canola oil each year…The Warden plant is designed to crush over 350,000 metric tonnes of canola seed annually."

Additionally, the Port of Warden has about 250 acres of industrial-zoned, development-ready properties in the Warden, WA area, which are ideal for frozen food processors, fresh produce packers, warehousing & cold storage distribution facilities, agricultural manufacturers, and other agri-business related operations. As large tracks of development-ready, industrial-zoned properties and with power, water, and rail infrastructure, etc. are getting harder and harder to find on the West Coast, the Port of Warden believes it is poised for strong future growth, given the large amount of industrial-zoned land that it has available.

As a result of the above-mentioned business growth and economic development and the future potential growth at the Port of Warden, the rail and road infrastructure in Warden needs to be upgraded and expanded, and more industrial grade roads and rail storage track are needed to allow for the related growth in truck and rail freight coming from and going to the Port of Warden to service existing industries, to attract new industries, create more jobs, and to improve freight mobility.

For more information, please contact Pat Millard of the Port of Warden at [email protected] or 509-800-7903.

About the Port of Warden

The Port of Warden is located in the heart of the Columbia Basin in Washington State and is a top location in the Pacific Northwest for food processing, fresh produce packing, cold storage warehousing, and agricultural manufacturing. 

The Port of Warden has very robust and extensive infrastructure including low cost hydro-electric power from Grant County PUD, reliable rail service from Columbia Basin Railroad, natural gas from both Williams Pipeline and Avista, close proximity to Interstate 90 and Washington State Route 17, abundant irrigation water supply from the Columbia Basin Project (East Columbia Basin Irrigation District and the US Bureau of Reclamation) and a large wastewater treatment system in partnership with the City of Warden and other local partners.

Nearly 100,000 people live within 35 miles of Warden, WA, while about 500,000 people reside within 70 miles of Warden. Additionally, the Port of Warden is close to major regional airports in Pasco, Washington and Spokane, Washington. 

SOURCE Port of Warden