Rail, road work to welcome Spirit to GTP

The N.C. Department of Transportation has committed to building a rail spur, plus several road improvements within the Global TransPark, to allow Spirit AeroSystems to receive, built and ship out aircraft components.

"The North Carolina Department of Transportation looks forward to working to enhance the economic impact for the citizens of Lenoir County and eastern North Carolina," Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippet wrote in two recent letters to Spirit executives.

The DOT provided the letters, which described the planned improvements, to The Free Press on Thursday.

The rail spur will connect Spirit's planned manufacturing facilities, which are expected to be operational by 2010, to the North Carolina Railroad's east-west line that runs through the center of Kinston.

Spirit, headquartered in Wichita, Kan., builds aircraft components in facilities in the Midwest and the United Kingdom. Spirit's Kinston facility will be used to build the center portion of the Airbus A350 XWB fuselage.

The raw materials for the fuselages will be shipped to the TransPark by rail, assembled on site, and sent out by rail to the Morehead City port. From there, the structures are taken by boat to Spirit's Scotland facilities for further assembly.

"Access is one of the reasons we chose the location that we chose," Spirit spokeswoman Debbie Gann said of the TransPark.

Gann said proximity to Morehead City was a major factor in the decision to sign on with the GTP, along with the state community college system's training programs, the state and local incentives packages and a good "working relationship" with North Carolina officials.

"They were real easy to work with," she said.

The GTP's lack of rail and highway transportation assets has made it difficult to attract major industrial tenants, although Gann explained that "any concerns we had about access were addressed by the state."

Although the assets are not currently available, state officials expect them to be ready by the time Spirit's facilities go online in 2010.

According to Tippets' letters, dated May 9 and May 13, the NCRR will create a temporary rail spur by Jan. 1, 2010, and complete rail link will be ready by Jan. 1, 2012.

The access road improvements include a "new main access road," that will connect to C.F. Harvey Parkway 3,000 feet east of where John Mewborne Road meets it, a realignment of the road to give Spirit more space for its facilities; and an additional access road within the Spirit site.

Transportation officials expect the new roads will be ready by Jan. 1, 2010. The DOT will also build a connector between the airport runway and the Spirit facility, which is expected to be finished by Jan. 1, 2011.

David Anderson can be reached at (252) 559-1077, or danderson@freedomenc.com