Roadway Funding Announced for FQ Tissue Expansion
Project to Reduce Neighborhood Truck Traffic
LOCK HAVEN — PennDOT announced Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014, the approval of $3M in funding for a SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority project to build a new industrial access road to serve First Quality Tissue’s Castanea facility.
Local development officials hailed the announcement, calling it another step towards securing a third paper machine at the First Quality plant.
The formal PennDOT announcement said the money will come from the proceeds from the state’s recent Act 89 which generated additional funding for transportation projects across the state.
The official announcement said the local money will help fund “a new two-way industrial access road, realign a portion of the Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad main line to accommodate the access road and construct new sidings and operating tracks for First Quality Tissue’s two existing facilities and a proposed new facility.”
The new road as proposed would begin somewhere near the Lucky 7 plant and parallel the rail line that runs through the First Quality holdings. The project application carries a $4.7 million price tag, the application indicating First Quality would be responsible for the difference.
The road would help remove the considerable truck traffic which flows through some relatively narrow roads through a heavily populated portion of Lock Haven and Flemington.
State Rep. Mike Hanna (Lock Haven-D) said the grant “advances a project whose job-creation potential cannot be overstated.”
Clinton County Economic Partnership executive director Mike Flanagan offered his thanks for those who were involved in the successful application: “It was put together in about two weeks and was one of the many submittals at the state level. This is another positive piece of the puzzle as First Quality continues its due diligence to site another tissue machine.”
Flanagan thanked First Quality, the area’s largest employer, for “what it has done for the community and for considering additional investment and employment opportunities.”
Three county taxing bodies within the last month had all agreed to a tax incentive program to help entice First Quality to add a third machine at its existing facility on the south side of Lock Haven.
As reported earlier, the Castanea/Lock Haven site is one of the finalists for the new machine which officials said would mean 184 new jobs, in addition to the 453 already working at the former International Paper site. The First Quality total investment is said to be worth more than $300 million.
