A shuttered shampoo factory in St. Paul never became a Twins ballpark, but it might become a maintenance facility for the planned Central Corridor light-rail line.
Project planners told the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority Board on Tuesday that the location near the Mississippi River where they planned to build a rail car fixing-and-cleaning complex is not practical. Instead, they said, the maintenance operation should be built in one of the vacant Diamond Products buildings east of the St. Paul Farmer's Market.
The complex was previously owned by the Gillette Co., which made shampoo and was considered for a new Twins ballpark a few years ago.
Plans call for a maintenance facility to be built on county land between Kellogg Boulevard and Warner Road, east of the Lafayette Bridge.
Planners said putting the maintenance facility on the Diamond site, which is north of Kellogg and has been vacant since 2005, would save about $3 million.
That move also would provide a better facility and allow greater flexibility for running high-speed rail and buses.
Some initial analysis found that the soil at the county site is bad and that the route needed to get trains down there would need significant construction, which could harm historic structures.
In the compromise leading to filing the federal project application, Ramsey County backed off its insistence that the terminus be at the rear concourse and consented to the line ending on Fourth Street in front of the Union Depot. That was the city's favored location.
