The Des Moines Metropolitan Area Planning Organization’s executive committee on Friday voted to terminate its contract with the owner of a Nebraska company that had been selected to operate a planned rail-truck transload facility east of downtown. 

The seven-person executive committee voted unanimously to exercise a termination clause in its agreement with Steve Braithwaite, who on Aug. 23 was indicted by a grand jury on 22 counts related to a 2015 explosion at his railcar cleaning operation in Omaha that killed two workers.  

The move is a further setback for the delayed transloading facility, which would offer shippers access to three major railroads — BNSF Railway Co., Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Pacific Railway — as well as the regional Iowa Interstate Railroad. Braithwaite was selected by the MPO in 2016 to operate the facility as Des Moines Transloading LLC.

In an emailed statement, the MPO said that the organization, together with the city of Des Moines and the Greater Des Moines Partnership, remains committed to the project and is taking necessary steps to ensure the project remains on a sustainable track toward development.

“This project is too important not to get it right,” said Todd Ashby, the MPO’s executive director. “We are disturbed and deeply disappointed by the recent developments, and we regret that corrective measures will delay the opening of a transload facility to serve Greater Des Moines and Iowa.”  

The indictments against Braithwaite and one of his companies caused the MPO to lose confidence in Braithwaite, the MPO said in its statement. “While we respect the due process of law and recognize that Braithwaite is innocent of wrongdoing until proven guilty, the recent indictments, in the exercise of prudence, require that the path to getting the project back on track be re-evaluated,” the MPO said in its release.

Braithwaite was selected by the MPO and the city of Des Moines in 2016 through a bid process to operate the transload facility as Des Moines Transloading. Braithwaite operates a similar transloading operation in Omaha. In December 2017 he purchased a 12-acre tract of land from the city of Des Moines for the planned facility. 

In late July before the indictments were issued, officials with the city and the MPO said they were satisfied that Braithwaite adequately addressed concerns raised by a Des Moines firm that had competed with Braithwaite for the transload facility contract. 

The contract with Braithwaite allowed for the MPO to terminate its agreement with him with 10 days’ notice, which the MPO did on Friday following passage of the resolution. 

The termination of the operator agreement may not derail funding for the project, officials said. 

The MPO had secured a $1.7 million Rail Revolving Loan Fund grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation for the project. MPO spokesman Gunnar Olson said in an email this morning that the MPO is in discussion with the Iowa DOT about the ongoing availability of those loan funds. 

The MPO has also applied for federal funding for the project. Because the MPO would be the recipient of the BUILD discretionary grant, Friday’s action by the executive committee “did nothing that would change the MPO’s ability to use these funds, if awarded, for the transload facility,” he said. 

The proposed transload facility, planned on the site of a former auto salvage yard just north of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway between East 14th and 15th streets, was supposed to begin operation in the fall of 2015, following an extensive feasibility study conducted by the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. 

The MPO executive committee, currently chaired by West Des Moines Mayor Steve Gaer, includes the following members: Joe Gatto, City of Des Moines; Gary Lorenz, City of Ankeny; Angela Connolly, Polk County; Ted Weaver, City of Clive; Stephanie Riva, City of Norwalk; Tom Armstrong, City of Grimes.