Update on Vicksburg Bridge Park

[Anonymous]

From KCSnotes List:

Members of the Vicksburg, Mississippi Bridge Commission say they will continue with plans for a public park on the old Mississippi River span's roadway next to adjoining train tracks despite opposition from a railroad company.

The Kansas City Southern Railway threatened legal action in a letter to the commission last month if the park plans were not dropped.

The commission met behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss the letter. Commission members said they took no action on the matter.

The KCS said its 999-year lease requires, at a minimum, that it be consulted about any planned changes involving the bridge.

"If the commission persists in going forward with developing plans to modify the use of the bridge, the railroad will seek whatever legal and equitable remedies it has available," Betty Collins, attorney for KCS, said in the letter.

The letter also was sent to the Warren County Board of Supervisors, which appoints members of the bridge commission.

The bridge commission has not committed to any changes to the 74-year-old span that is no longer open to vehicular traffic but is still used by the railroad.

The panel voted last month to hire local engineers to update their 1999 plans for a park. Any plans to convert the bridge would also require approval by supervisors.

The letter from KCS is just one in a series of communications between the railroad and the bridge commission over several issues, including a proposed rate increase, maintenance of the railroad tracks and billing, repairs to the road deck of the bridge and funding for that work.

Bobby Bailess, the attorney for the bridge commission, said Wednesday that any of those issues could end in litigation or arbitration as described in the lease with the railroad company.

KCS - or its predecessors - have leased the railroad portion of the bridge since it was built and have paid a per-car toll.

Today, that toll is about $4 per car. The bridge commission voted in June to seek a $10-per-car increase. The railroad objected and, according to their lease, if a new rate cannot be negotiated then the process would go into arbitration.

The lease is not clear on how other disputes are settled.

The bridge was built by a private contract and sold to Warren County in 1947.

The concrete roadbed had been deteriorating and was closed to vehicles in 1998. It cannot be repaired and reopened to cars, supervisors have decided, because the roadway is too narrow by today's minimum standards.

[Junctionfan]

If they really want a bridge so darn bad, why don't they save up and build one themselves and leave KCS to theirs? Why complicate life with stupid confrontational legal issues and politics?

[rrnut282]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

If they really want a bridge so darn bad, why don't they save up and build one themselves and leave KCS to theirs? Why complicate life with stupid confrontational legal issues and politics?

I think you're missing the point. It's not KCS's bridge, KCS is the one that is confrontational. So far, the park is only talk, not a done deal.

If you owned a duplex, would you let the tenant of 1/2 tell you what you can or can't do with the other 1/2? I know I wouldn't.