VRS: Dozens of Steel Loads Out

12.February, Shelburne VT – VRS is capitalizing on a short-term haul of up to 100 potential loads of structural steel stranded at a failed Burlington development site are destined for a variety of alternate projects beyond the region. More than two dozen loads have departed Shelburne VT between January 10 and February 10.

Pennsylvania-based Lombard Metals Corp. acquired the remaining stock of a 1500-stick lode of 70-ft. I-beams, delivered to the site in 2018 to undergird the CityPlace Burlington multipurpose development project. The project was abandoned late last year by the local developer, and their backer Brookfield Asset Management (owner of Genesee & Wyoming Railways, and numerous global assets). These assets of the CityPlace project were liquidated.

Burlington VT

CityPlace steel — **Fifteen hundred 70-ft I-beams** were delivered in Nov.2018 to the Burlington VT site of the CityPlace multipurpose development. Loads of 15 beams have been shipped by steel salvager Lombard Metals from Shelburne Falls VT to various buyers, including Hardman Steel in Michigan. The CityPlace design called for the beams to be butt-welded in pairs, and driven 10 feet into bedrock, which lies an average of about 130 feet below the site surface {photo: Evan Weiss, Burlington Free Press}.

End-to-end rail move

The steel was delivered to the site in 2018, and has been liquidated to Lombard, who specializes in buying and selling excess, surplus, and secondary usable steel, usually from completed or cancelled projects, design/specification changes, over-purchased, damaged, aged, or obsolete inventories. Lombard resells the product through its wide network.

Hardman Construction in Ludington, MI has purchased some of the steel for delivery by an all-rail move: Loaded PTTX flat are loaded at Shelburne on VTR southbound to interchange with PAS at Hoosick Jct. NY. PAS delivers the cars to Rotterdam Jct. NY for CSXT to pull them to Grand Rapids MI, where G&W-owned Marquette Rail (MQT) makes the final move and placement. Hardman will use the steel on various projects.