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Burlington Lands Big Transportation Grant

Burlington has landed a $1.32-million grant to help Silgan Containers improve roads around its soon-to-be-built plant.

The Iowa Department of Transportation is giving a financial boost to the effort to bring Silgan Containers to Burlington.

Tuesday morning, the Iowa Transportation Commission awarded the city a Revitalize Iowa's Sound Economy (RISE) grant for up to $1.32-million.

The money will be used to improve some of the roads to Silgan's proposed plant, located in the Flint Ridge Business Park.

  • Rebuild 1,250 feet of Division St. (between West Burlington Ave. and U.S. Highway 61)
  • Build a roundabout at the intersection of West Burlington Ave. and West Ave.
  • Add a right-turn lane on West Burlington Ave.

Craig Markley, Director of the Iowa DOT's Office of Systems Planning, said Burlington received the maximum grant available: $11,000/job created.

"The maximum is attained by the quality of the jobs, the level of capital investment or how much money is going to go into actually building the buildings for Silgan, as well as putting the equipment into the buildings," Markley said. "So the fact that the project has 120 new, full-time jobs paying 144% of the average labor-shed rate for Burlington [...] as well as the $125-million capital investment, that allowed it to get the $11,000/job."

Markley said the RISE program was established 30 years ago and is funded by a two-cent tax on gasoline.

About 800 projects, primarily industrial, have been funded since the program was developed.

Markley said some of the money goes to "immediate opportunity" projects, like in Burlington where a company is ready to locate.  The rest goes to "local development" projects, which are more speculative.

For instance, he said the grant can help build a road into an empty lot, hoping to attract businesses to build on the property.

Burlington, which plans to put up  $400,000 as a local match, will receive the state money as reimbursements throughout the construction phase.

The road construction should be completed by the end of next year.

Jason Parrott is a former reporter at Tri States Public Radio.