WASHINGTON – Today, Missouri U.S. Senator Roy Blunt and Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler announced the $10.09 million grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation to the City of Sedalia to extend its existing railroad tracks to the new Sedalia Rail Industrial Park. “This grant funding will help keep the Sedalia Rail Industrial Park on track to become the largest, exclusive rail-served industrial park in the Midwest,” said Blunt. “The new rail design and capacity will position the region to take advantage of the great economic opportunities ahead. I appreciate Congresswoman Hartzler’s partnership and the advocacy of local officials who have worked hard to make this project a reality.” “I am pleased the City of Sedalia has received this important grant to spur economic growth in the Pettis County area. The city has worked hard alongside the Sedalia-Pettis County Community Service Corporation, Pettis County, Senator Blunt, and my office to obtain the funding,” Hartzler said. “The grant will allow it to expand the current railroad tracks to the new Industrial Rail Park, where Nucor Steel is building a new steel rebar micro-mil facility that is estimated to bring 250 new jobs. Ideally, the rail project will spur other companies to locate their facilities at the Industrial Park too, creating even more good-paying jobs for hardworking Missourians in the Fourth District.” In 2016, the Rail-Served Industrial Sites Task Force was launched in Sedalia to determine ways to bring more manufacturing to the Pettis County area. The creation of the task force led to the establishment of a large collaborative project involving sixteen partners in both the public and private sector to create a rail-served industrial park. This park has the potential to be the Midwest’s largest, exclusive rail-served industrial park, offering 2900 acres of development ready property for companies to invest in. To make this project possible, the task force would have to extend existing railways in the area to the industrial park so that plants at the park could easily ship their product. Senator Blunt and Congresswoman Hartzler helped Sedalia win a BUILD Grant, which stands for Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, from the U.S. Department of Transportation to extend the railroad to the new industrial park. You can view Blunt’s letter of support here and Hartzler’s letter of support here. In November 2017, Nucor Steel LLC became the first tenant of the new industrial park. Nucor is currently in the midst of building a $400 million rebar micro mill facility there, which is estimated to bring 250 new jobs with an average salary of $65,000 to the area. The establishment of the plant in Sedalia is one of the largest recruitment projects central Missouri has landed in ten years.