State Acquires Corridor
through Sauk County Powder Plant

Sauk Prairie…..State acquisition of a rail corridor through Badger Army Ammunition Plant in Sauk County is a win-win according to State Senator Dale Schultz.

“Saving a corridor forever is a win for today and a win for tomorrow,” said Schultz (R-Richland Center). “Today, the corridor has value for freight rail or a recreational trail and tomorrow the community might value it for passenger rail. A corridor can also have value for public or private utilities like optical fiber delivering broadband internet service.”

In the short term, the rail corridor could be used to help dismantle some of the 1400 buildings where thousands of workers made rocket propellant and gun powder for World War II and the Vietnam War.

As the Army use ends, the thousands of acres are being divided between the Ho Chunk Nation, the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for conservation and recreation lands connecting to Devil’s Lake State Park.

Schultz commended local advocates for the corridor and Frank Huntington of the Department of Transportation for a “rail to trail” agreement enabling the corridor to be developed as a trail in the event two years passed with no need for freight shipping.

Just south of BAAP, the rail corridor passes through the villages of Sauk City and Prairie du Sac where a major community development goal is to convert the corridor from rail to trail. There has been no freight rail activity in either village for a decade, and the corridor currently stops at a dismantled bridge over the Wisconsin River in Sauk City. DOT has already agreed that discussions regarding a rail to trail process can now begin on the corridor through the villages.

Contact Dale Schultz at sen.schultz@legis.wi.gov, 800.978.8008 or at P.O. Box 7882, Madison WI 53707.