Sandy Hamilton Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Proponents Say Railroad Deal Could Boost W.Va.'s Economy, Attract Jobs To Eastern Panhandle

Colorado-based OmniTRAX, a freight-only transportation company that links several railroads from coast to coast in the U.S., purchased the Winchester & Western Railroad for $105 million in September.

The railroad runs through part of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, and the purchase is expected to improve West Virginia’s economy by attracting more businesses to the Eastern Panhandle.

The Winchester & Western Railroad has been around since 1916. It stretches from southern New Jersey, through Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, covering about 100 miles.

Winchester & Western Railroad employee and Berkeley County native Eddie McKee said the interchange at Corning Way in Martinsburg is critical to the operation of the Winchester & Western.

“This is just about the center of the railroad, and the majority of our customers is right in this area, within five miles,” McKee said.

Two of those customers are the Argos cement plant and Procter & Gamble, both in Martinsburg.

McKee thinks OmniTRAX will increase the customer-base for the Winchester & Western Railroad, reaching more industrial companies that will rely on their rail service.

“Basically, it’s another company that we didn’t have, like Procter & Gamble. I mean, Procter & Gamble come here, brand new, OmniTRAX is brand new to West Virginia. So, it’s a win-win for West Virginia. They have so many resources that it’s great,” he said.

Part of the Winchester & Western Railroad at Corning Way in Martinsburg.

OmniTRAX is headquartered in Denver and owns 23 railroads all over the U.S. and in parts of Canada. It also owns more than 500 short line and regional railroads. About 350 industrial customers like P&G, steel companies, and oil and natural gas companies use those railroads to ship their goods.

But the Winchester & Western Railroad is only their second line in the northeast.

“For OmniTRAX, it gets us a dot on the map in a market that we’ve been interested in for a very long time,” Ean Johnson, Vice President of Economic Development at OmniTRAX, said in an interview via Skype.

Johnson said a major benefit in purchasing Winchester & Western is the rail’s proximity to more than 100 million people within a day’s drive. He said that’s a huge draw for potential manufacturing companies looking for a new place to set up shop.

“It’s providing access to market, which then allows our customers to make those strategic decisions to locate their facilities,” he said.

And those facilities that look to locate near the Winchester & Western Railroad will help to diversify West Virginia’s economy, bringing more jobs to the Eastern Panhandle area, Johnson said.

“Oftentimes those jobs are well-paying manufacturing jobs that stick around communities for a very long time.”

The Winchester & Western Railroad is considered a short line, and it’s made up of two divisions. The first is the Virginia Division. It has 53 miles of track running through the Shenandoah Valley and moves about 12,500 carloads per year. The second is the New Jersey Division. It has 47 miles and moves 8,500 carloads per year.

The New Jersey Division interconnects with the Winchester & Western Railroad in Martinsburg. Both divisions have connections to CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern – two major railroads called Class 1s.

The purchase of the Winchester & Western gave OmniTRAX a total of 470 railcars and seven locomotives to add to their overall operation, and the company also picked up about 60 employees through the Winchester & Western.

Berkeley County officials are also glad to see the purchase.

Sandy Hamilton, executive director of the Berkeley County Development Authority, said that for years the Winchester & Western Railroad was underutilized, but she thinks OmniTRAX will help the railroad and the communities around it grow.

“We have a gem here. We have a great line that would cost billions of dollars to replicate it,” she said.

Hamilton notes OmniTRAX will bring in new capital, resources, and support to the railroad, and she believes the impact will filter out throughout West Virginia.

“They have some exciting ideas, they have exciting connections, and I think it’ll be someone good that we can partner with to market.”

But in terms of actual dollar amount, the total economic impact for the community is yet to be determined.

W.Va. Has The Nation's 6th-Largest Transportation System; Tackling Its Challenges Will Cost Billions

From 2010 to 2018, Berkeley County, West Virginia has grown in population by nearly 13,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

That’s more than 1,500 new people each year. While population growth can be a great thing – it adds to the economy and the workforce – it also takes a toll on roads.

Route 9 West in the Eastern Panhandle stretches 27 miles from Martinsburg to Berkeley Springs.

It’s a busy road, home to large commercial operations such as a Macy’s distribution center, FedEx and General Motors as well as residential homes, farms and smaller businesses.

The small, rural two-lane expressway carries a lot of traffic daily. With a speed limit that’s between 45 and 55 miles per hour, it’s often backed up during peak traffic times and sees a fair amount of accidents.

“We’re getting slammed up here, and we need some major help,” said Elaine Mauck, a Berkeley County Council member who has been vocal about her concern over Route 9 West.

“People fail to realize the big issue about Berkeley County is we are within 500 miles, any way you shake it, of two thirds of the population of the United States,” she said. “That’s why we are attracting business and people.”

Route 9 West began experiencing its boom in use about 10 years ago, Mauck said, and the congestion is only worsening as more drivers use the road.

Mauck isn’t alone in her concern over Route 9 West. Many residents in the area, including the Berkeley County Development Authority’s Executive Director Sandy Hamilton, share concerns over the road.

“I live in a subdivision off of Route 9 West,” Hamilton said. “So, I travel it every day, and I can tell you that if I’m finishing up something at 5:00 p.m., I may as well stay here until 6:00, because I’m just going to be in Route 9 stopped traffic waiting.”

Hamilton said it can sometimes take her 40 minutes to go six miles during peak traffic times.

The road is also vastly important to development, and Hamilton notes the Berkeley County Development Authority has about 50 acres of available grounds in that area the agency can use to sell to potential businesses.

And along with education and workforce, Hamilton said road infrastructure is just as important to businesses.

“Much of what we have is because of being on this I-81 corridor. It’s a nice interstate system, but the other roads that feed it have to be adequate as well,” Hamilton said.

Road Challenges Throughout W.Va.

Road challenges like this in Berkeley County are not unique in West Virginia.

Counties across the state are struggling with road issues – especially in high traffic counties, like Monongalia, Kanawha, Cabell and Ohio. Kanawha County sees the highest level of traffic in the state, according to the West Virginia Division of Highways (DOH).

During the 2019 West Virginia Legislative session, there was heightened tension and passionate floor speeches about the condition of roads. Discussions around the subject grew so loud that the West Virginia DOH made a point to improve transparency after the session ended by creating a list of all secondary road projects in the state.

More recently, the DOH created an interactive, online map that shows both primary and secondary road projects throughout the state.

Aaron Gillispie, the chief engineer for the West Virginia DOH, said West Virginia has one of the largest transportation systems in the country based on the number of miles of road in the state.

“We’re little old West Virginia, but we are the sixth largest,” Gillispie said. The state has 36,000 miles of roadway, largely maintained by the Division of Highways.

In West Virginia, only 14,000 miles of roadway are eligible for federal dollars. The rest must come from state tax dollars like tolls, DMV fees and gasoline tax.

The money is collected in the State Road Fund, which combined with state and federal dollars, takes in about $1.2 billion each year. Gillispie said road projects are funded based on need, and there’s never enough dollars to go around.

“Our needs far outweigh our means,” he explained. “And every year we get further and further behind as a whole. We have a high demand and a limited supply, so therefore, we do have to prioritize.”

Gillispie said on top of funding, there’s a plethora of other challenges. Emergencies like flooding that washout a road can halt regular core maintenance for an extended amount of time, and the DOH only has about 4,600 employees spread out across the state, and they have a high turnover rate.

“We look at the whole state, and we see challenges everywhere,” he said.

Tackling Route 9 West In Berkeley County

In the case of Route 9 West in the Eastern Panhandle, Gillispie said he and his staff have had that road on their radar for some time, but that widening the nearby I-81 Corridor that stretches from Martinsburg to Virginia is the DOH’s main priority in the county.

Gillispie said the DOH is currently studying how to fix Route 9 West in the coming years.

Berkeley County Development Authority’s Sandy Hamilton said she is supportive of studying the road to find the best solution to tackle Route 9 West from a functionality standpoint.

Elaine Mauck, with the Berkeley County Council, said she feels the DOH should address the road as soon as possible and that widening the road to add additional lanes is the way to go.

“The longer it takes for them to come up with an idea about how they’re going to do Route 9, the more costly it’s going to be,” Mauck said.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways in 2015 found that West Virginia was short $750 million each year in overall road maintenance and projects.

Gillispie, with the DOH, said that means, to adequately fund the state’s roads, West Virginia would need at least $2.4 billion every year – twice what’s available now.

Q&A: Berkeley County Development Authority Outlines Challenges & Statewide Impact

Berkeley County is one of the fastest growing counties in West Virginia. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 2013 and 2016, the population grew by 4,300 people. It’s also the second most-populated county in the state.

With big businesses like Procter and Gamble moving in, it seems like the population will only continue to grow, so how does the county handle that?

West Virginia Public Broadcasting spoke with Sandy Hamilton, Executive Director of the Berkeley County Development Authority to talk about challenges in the growing region and her thoughts on the county’s overall impact on the state.

Biggest Challenges:

Building a dependable workforce
Keeping up with infrastructure needs

Impact:

Hamilton says she hopes Berkeley County’s growth “provides hope” for the rest of the state and for each area of West Virginia to focus and emphasize its strengths.

Procter & Gamble Still Looking for New Hires

Construction of the upcoming Procter and Gamble site in Martinsburg is well on track, but the company is still looking for 400 new hires to work the plant once fully built.

Since groundbreaking in September 2015, the Procter and Gamble site in Martinsburg has been the work zone for an average of 1,000 construction workers.

P&G officials say nine buildings will be located on the nearly 500-acre site, and all nine are seeking LEED certification – that stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

By 2019, about 700 total employees are expected to be on the site. So far, a total of 265 people have been hired, with most of those from West Virginia.

Sandy Hamilton is the Executive Director of the Berkeley County Development Authority. She says P&G has totally changed the state’s business climate.

“Once word got out that P&G’s here,” she noted, “that’s like a marketing finanza that you know, other companies in other areas of the world who didn’t know we existed, now they know we do.”

The West Virginia P&G site will be the largest Procter and Gamble site built in a decade. It will manufacture products like body wash, shampoo & conditioner, and fabric softener.

Bounce will be the first major brand made with production expected to begin in January 2018. It will be about four more years before the site is in full operation.

*Editor’s Note: This story originally indicated P&G in Martinsburg would make laundry detergent, however, this was not correct. The mistake has been removed.