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This aerial view of proposed improvements to LeCompte Road, which serves Springfield Underground, was included in information provided to City Council members prior to their 9-0 vote to commit funds to the project if a federal grant application is successful. 
Provided by city of Springfield 
This aerial view of proposed improvements to LeCompte Road, which serves Springfield Underground, was included in information provided to City Council members prior to their 9-0 vote to commit funds to the project if a federal grant application is successful. 

Council agrees to $1.6M in matching funds for infrastructure upgrade 

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Last edited 3:08 p.m., May 17, 2022

Springfield City Council committed up to $1.6 million in matching funds for a possible $1.5 million federal grant to upgrade a section of LeCompte Road, the entrance to Springfield Underground.  

A city grant application to the U.S. Economic Development Administration and Department of Commerce would widen the road to three lanes from the existing BNSF Railway tracks south to the complex’s entrance. It also would widen the shoulders on LeCompte Road from that entrance south to Division Street, and it would improve the intersection of LeCompte Road and Division. 

At its meeting last night, council voted 9-0 in favor of the resolution to commit funds, which would come from the eighth-cent transportation tax and not from the general fund. 

Dan Smith, the city’s Public Works Department director, said council authorized staff to apply for an EDA grant to improve LeCompte Road in July 2021, and EDA requested a resolution showing the city’s commitment to providing matching funds should the grant be awarded. 

“We’re hopeful that with this additional information, our application will be considered favorably,” he said. 

According to information provided by Public Works Assistant Director Martin Gugel, costs above the grant funding amount will be covered by a future cost-share agreement between Springfield Underground owner Erlen Group and the city, who would share the costs equally.

Kevin Ausburn, CEO of SMC Packaging Group, manufacturer of corrugated packaging products, told council his company typically has over 100 tractor-trailer units coming and going on its properties every day, with half of those shuttling among three SMC properties and 15-20 using LeCompte Road to get from one SMC site to another each day. 

SMC is just one company giving LeCompte Road a workout. Christina Angle, chief financial officer of the Erlen Group, joined Ausburn in supporting the matching funds resolution and committed to donating right-of-way and engineering services for the possible project.  

Springfield Underground, an underground storage facility that started as a limestone mine, has 3.2 million square feet of leasable storage space, according to its website, with a constant temperature of 62 degrees. It includes 224 dock doors, with more than 3 miles each of lit roadway and rail siding. Multiple companies have warehouse and office space in the facility, which draws a large amount of truck traffic. A representative of Erlen Group told Springfield Business Journal that there are 17 separate warehouses and a much longer list of companies that use the site, with storage inside and outside of the warehouses.  

“We are serious about economic development,” Angle said of Erlen Group. “In the last two and a half years, we’ve grown from 42 people to 108, and we’ve added 650,000 square feet of industrial space in the last five years. We’re very serious about the growth that this kind of opportunity can provide.” 

Ausburn offered support for the project. 

“This is an important, necessary development for Springfield,” he said. “I commend the city for thinking about ways that we can impact our future economic success, and this is the type of project to do that.” 

According to Ausburn, improvements to the LeCompte Road infrastructure will generate more interest from new industries and from local businesses looking for opportunities to grow. 

“That is something that we can continue to build on, but infrastructure upgrades such as LeCompte Road are a necessary step to ensure that future development in Springfield.” 

He added that infrastructure needs are a barrier to good pieces of property remaining undeveloped. 

Further, LeCompte Road, with a 3-foot shoulder of loose gravel, is unsafe, Ausland said, with cars having to back up to allow trucks to turn and with one of his employees being rear-ended on Division Street as he waited to make that turn. 

“Anything we can do to improve that would be beneficial to the business community and be beneficial to the citizens that travel through there on a regular basis,” he said. 

Councilperson Matthew Simpson offered his support for the resolution. 

“I’m really excited about this and what it will mean for job creation and job expansion in the future for Springfield,” he said. 

Also offering advance support for the measure was Councilperson Abe McGull, who said, “It really needs some improvement. There’s a drop-off; there’s a lot of heavy 18-wheelers and trucks, tractor-trailers, that’s going on there, a lot of business activity, which is good for the city. I think we all would support this measure.” 

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