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Energy, Powder River Basin, and the DM&E

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[quote user="Murphy Siding"][quote user="futuremodal"] It should be worth noting that the ex-Milwaukee grade is railbanked by the State, according to their DOT website. [/quote]The tracks are even still there past Murphy Siding.[;)]  However, there have been buildings and hiways built on top of the ROW east of Rapid City.[/quote]Hmmmmm......Perhaps some eco-schmoe is contemplatin' a new biofuels facility there at Murphy Siding?I did as you suggested and copied some topo maps of the Rapid City to Colony territory.  It looks as if there might be a short but significant grade east out of Rapid City, one that seems to cross a lot of side streets, but it's one that could be avoided with a northern bypass around Rapid City via Box Elder Creek.  Other than that there doesn't look to be any areas of concern should rail traffic increase on that line.  The line skirts Sturgis to the west, and there may be a short up and down segment between Sturgis and Whitewood.So if the Northern Option involved only 100 or so miles of new trackage compared to the Southern option's 200 or so, even a Rapid City bypass only adds about 10 more miles of new track construction.  Kevin and the gang would still have been able to cut a cool billion or so from the loan request, and probably would have the money in hand even as we speak.The Southern route, although water level grade and giving the closest connection to the eastern power plants, may end up having been The Big Mistake.
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