Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad’s decision to close the Coos Bay rail line didn’t just limit transportation options from the South Coast to Eugene. It has turned a Reedsport business with contacts throughout the Midwest into a purely regional interest.

Part of the reason American Bridge decided to locate on the South Coast was because of its rail access, said Fred Jacquot, the company’s Reedsport plant manager. The company produces complex fabricated steel structures that are bulky, heavy and expensive to transport by truck. So it was a big advantage to load products directly into railcars when its competitors in Portland had to truck them from their plant to the railroad.

But the tables have turned since September 2007, when CORP closed the 94-mile stretch of track citing unsafe tunnel conditions.

American Bridge gets about 95 percent of its raw material from steel mills east of the Mississippi, which arrive by rail in Portland. Trucks take them the rest of the way to Reedsport. That can cost as much as three times the price of sending them down via the Coos Bay rail line. It can be even more expensive to ship out finished products, Jacquot said, as they are very large and very heavy.

“It’s a very big impact,” he said, though he wouldn’t say how much the company is paying for shipping because he didn’t want to reveal it to his competitors.

The company has been hurt especially with sales in the Midwest. Jacquot said the company used to supply finished products to companies from Montana to Texas and east to Detroit. American Bridge still is working on some contracts in that part of the country, but it no longer bids for projects that far east. It can’t compete with companies in Portland.

“We don’t have access to that market without the rail line,” Jacquot said. “We are entirely focused on the Pacific Northwest region.”

When CORP pulled the plug on the rail line in 2007, the company had pieces for a bridge construction project in Chicago stacked up next to the line. Those pieces are still sitting there, waiting to be shipped by truck as they are needed in the Windy City.

American Bridge has already lost 50 percent of its business, resulting in approximately a 50 percent cut in its workforce. And the lack of rail service threatens the company’s viability, Jacquot said.

“Without that access, it’s very likely we will not be competitive into the future,” he said. “Continued investment in the plant would be limited and plans for growth would be stalled.”

Fabrication crews at the Bolin Island plant are working on two projects now, one for a bridge near San Francisco and the other for a large steel bridge project at Hoover Dam in the Nevada and Arizona region.

Those large pieces are being shipped by truck.

Other shippers are hurting, too.

Georgia-Pacific estimates it spent an additional $2 million on shipping in 2008 because of the rail line closure, said spokeswoman Julie Davis.

Roseburg Forest Products has seen a similar increase in costs, said Ray Barbee, vice president of sales and marketing.

“We are still spending a lot of money over and above what we should be,” he said.

It’s anyone’s guess when shippers will be able to get materials and send products by rail, but it doesn’t look like the line’s going to be removed.

The Oregon International Port of Coos Bay has first dibs on the line, superseding an attempt by CORP to abandon the track.

Although the port has contested the $16.6 million price tag set by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, port officials say they can get the resources.

“We will have everything we need to purchase the rail line,” said Martin Callery, director of communications and freight mobility with the port.

The sale is scheduled to close Feb. 18.

— Staff Photographer Lou Sennick contributed to this story.