FQT Expansion Nears; New Access Road Work Begins
LOCK HAVEN — Preliminary work continues towards the ultimate installation of a third paper tissue machine at the First Quality Tissue plant.
Most recently, Monday night gave its approval to a new stop sign on Myrtle Street, a back road near Bald Eagle Creek but a stop sign needed as part of roadwork construction needed for new access to the plant. The work is part of a $300 million access expansion plan for the county’s biggest employer, a project announced in May. As explained by city manager Rich Marcinkevage, preliminary construction is already underway just off E. Walnut Street, near Todd’s Auto Body; a stop sign will be needed at that access point also, he said.
It is part of a plan, the city manager said, to ease truck traffic off Walnut and Park Streets, in the vicinity of the Hoberman Playground and nearby housing. The First Quality project will need a reported 60,000 truckloads of fill to elevate the plot for construction of the building to house the new paper machine. Marcinkevage said the fill phase of the project could take some five to six months. Initial reports are it will come from a site off Route 664 in Woodward Township, transported across the Constitution Bridge, west on E. Main Street to Hanna to Walnut to the new street being constructed along the SEDA-COG-owned railroad right-of-way running to the First Quality plant.
The $300 million improvement project the city signed onto in May will be carried out by the SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority which has obtained a state PennDOT grant. As explained at the time, First Quality will provide the required local share of approximately $1.64 million. The project will cover construction of the road and installation of rail service to FQT’s existing and planned facilities in Castana Township.
The new road will begin on the south side of E. Walnut St. near Todd’s Auto Body and run adjacent to the existing rail line, in a southwesterly direction under Paul Mack Boulevard, 1,400 in the city and 400 feet in Castanea Township to the eastern boundary with First Quality, traversing another 2,100 feet to the vicinity of E. Park St., the project site.
The work is being done in conjunction with plans for the new, third tissue manufacturing machine at First Quality, expected to provide 186 new jobs. The paper machine expansion project is expected to soon get underway, first phase elevating the ground on which the new building will sit.
