Land Revitalization Success Stories | tPA #560-F22-288

December 2022

Planning for Sustainable Brownfield Redevelopment

HARLOWTON, MONTANA - HARLOWTON ROUNDHOUSE SITE REUSE DESIGN

PROJECT DESCRIPTION	

•	Community: Hariowton, Montana

•	EPA Regional Lead: Greg Davis, davis.gregory@epa.gov

•	Site and Use: Redevelop the former railroad roundhouse and adjacent foreman's office building

•	Technical Assistance: Conceptual Site Reuse Design for the Milwaukee Road railyard site

PROJECT BACKGROUND	

The City of Hariowton inherited the 180-acre railyard property after the
Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Paul-Pacific Railroad went bankrupt in 1980. The city
is in the process of cleaning up significant petroleum contamination and
planning the reuse of the entire Milwaukee Road railyard. The property
includes a roundhouse (a 15,000 square foot semicircular shaped building
used by the railways for servicing and storing locomotives) and the foreman's
office building, The city is interested in reusing these buildings if possible, The
city has also developed a community-led wetland/nature park restoration plan
for the heavily contaminated 5-acre refueling area directly adjacent to the
roundhouse,

PROJECT CHALLENGES	

The interior of the roundhouse and other historic structures contain significant
amounts of lead-based paint and asbestos contamination that will need to be
cleaned up prior to reuse of the buildings. However, the city has not developed
a reuse design for the buildings. Depending on the final reuse of the property,
the city is concerned about the operation and maintenance costs associated
with building redevelopment.

EPA'S TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE	

EPA's Land Revitalization team helped Hariowton by:

•	Working with local stakeholders, Montana Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ), and Snowy Mountain Development
Corporation (SMDC) to hold a three-day public meeting and design
workshop focused on the brownfields program process and developing
conceptual design options for the roundhouse and forman's office buildings.

•	Delivering a final three-phased conceptual site design and building revitalization study to engage potential developers and city leaders.

•	Developing opinions of probable cost estimates for the redevelopment of the conceptual site reuse design to assist with future public
and private financing options for the roundhouse cleanup and redevelopment,

NEXT STEPS FOR CONSIDERATION	

•	Establish a key stakeholder redevelopment group to work with Montana DEQ and SMDC to further refine the plan for reusing the
Roundhouse and Foreman's Office buildings,

•	Submit a brownfields grant application to help address the asbestos and lead-based paint within the roundhouse property,

•	Conduct a financial analysis for the three-phased conceptual site reuse options to identify potential funding options to assist with
cleanup and redevelopment of the property,

•	Apply for state historic preservation grants and other local, state, and federal resources for site remediation and construction,

Figure 1 and 2: Conceptual Design of Roundhouse Building
(above) and Property (below)


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