The City of Covington unanimously approved a temporary construction easement agreement for the Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Texas Pacific Railway Company, a subsidiary of the Norfolk Southern Corporation, to repair instability in a railbed. The contractor in charge of the project is Capital Railroad Contracting.
The company plans to stabilize the railbed to prevent potential derailment or future damage to the railroad infrastructure. Norfolk Southern requested a temporary construction easement for access to the railroad’s current, old access road. The railroad runs through a section Devou Park, which is under the purview of the city.
The construction plans designate three areas Norfolk Southern will have to get construction easement agreements from: Covington, Duke Energy, and a private developer. Norfolk Southern does not currently have an agreement in place with Duke, but representatives say they are in the process of obtaining it.
“This has come to us as an emergency. If it’s been an emergency a while in the making, they don’t have a deal with Duke, but they want us to act before they get all these other parties lined up. That’s a little bit disconcerting,” Covington Mayor Joe Meyer said. “Having said that, I think we’re all disposed to supporting the construction easement.”
Norfolk Southern’s slope stabilization project will be on a railbed that runs through the northwest corner of Devou Park. Norfolk Southern wants to establish a better access road to the railbed. The temporary construction easement they are requesting would expire on April 1 of 2023.
The purpose of the easement is to widen and resurface the pre existing access road so vehicles and equipment can safely travel for construction. Norfolk Southern has expressed urgency, reiterating that this is a high priority project for them. Norfolk Southern will build a retaining wall as part of the construction.
“The retaining wall will be constructed immediately adjacent to our tracks,” Will Graham, Construction Manager at Norfolk Southern, said. “It would not be on the easement area. The easement area would just be for our construction site. The retaining wall would be made out of what we describe as a soldier pile. The piles will be steel and we’ll have concrete panels in between those steel piles.”
Meyer said he would be adamantly against any permanent construction easement in Devou Park.
“Devou Park is our park. It is a very vital public park that this entire region enjoys. I’m not inclined to allow a permanent easement,” Meyer said. “Maybe we could get a license? Maybe we can get some other informal agreements? In terms of transferring any property rights from Devou Park to the Norfolk Southern Railroad, that’s an ask too great for me.”
