According to reports from state officials, the new facility is on track to become the largest, exclusive rail-served industrial park in the Midwest.

In a story from Missourinet.com, Sedalia-Pettis County Economic Development Executive Director Jessica Craig says the decision by North Carolina-based Nucor is a game changer for Sedalia.

“A project (like) this is transformative for our community, for the contractors that are working there,” Craig says. “There’s about 500 people that are working on site today.”

Craig says the 500 construction workers include men and women from various trades.

“From electricians to welders to fabricators to equipment installers and those individuals that are doing dirt work and site prep,” says Craig.

The plant is expected to open in November.

Craig tells Missourinet that Nucor has hired about 150 employees so far, to fill three shifts. She says Nucor is still hiring, and the steelworker jobs will pay an average salary of $65,000.

Craig also says Nucor will be the anchor tenant of Sedalia’s new rail industrial park.

“It (steel plant) has inspired a lot of development, additional development in the community. There are retail and commercial locations also under construction in that corridor,” Craig says.

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R) and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, announced in February that the U.S. Department of Transportation had awarded Sedalia a $10 million grant to extend its existing railroad tracks to the new Sedalia rail industrial park.

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