Kawasaki announced Wednesday a $30 million expansion of its Lincoln mass transit rail car plant that will add about 300 jobs over the next three years.

The expansion will be done in three phases, said Vice President and Plant Manager Richard Grundman, with the first phase adding 70,000 square feet to the 437,000-square-foot plant that is just south of Kawasaki’s main manufacturing facility at 6600 N.W. 27th St.

Work will begin this spring with completion expected by January of 2008.

Grundman said the scope of the second and third phases has not yet been determined.

Hiring for the additional jobs will start around the end of the year, Grundman said.

He declined to say how much the jobs would pay, but when the plant opened in November 2001, the company said the average wage then was $15 an hour.

The plant currently employs about 200 people.

In addition to the plant expansion, Kawasaki also plans to build a rail car test track that will allow cars built in Lincoln to be tested and shipped directly to customers.

Much of that testing is now done at the company’s rail car facility in Yonkers, N.Y.

The expansion is not related to any new contracts, Grundman said, but is needed for the company to keep pace with its current contracts.

In August, Kawasaki won a contract to build 210 rail cars for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro-North Railroad, with an option for an additional 170. At the time the company said it would have to make a significant capital investment for that work.

Kawasaki also has a contract to build 340 rail cars for the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Railroad, which links Manhattan and New Jersey.

Altogether, Kawasaki has more than $2 billion worth of contracts  to build rail cars for the Metropolitan Transit Authority and New York New Jersey Port Authority through 2012.

“This expansion will increase manufacturing capacity and insure current rail car orders are delivered on time,” said Shiro Noiri, president of Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp, U.S.A. “The test track will allow rail cars to be tested to the highest standards before sending them to our customers.”

Grundman said Kawasaki will seek state tax incentives under the Nebraska Advantage Act to help with the expansion.

Nebraska Economic Development Director Richard Baier was traveling Wednesday and unavailable for comment, but he told the Journal Star last month that state incentives usually amount to 10 percent to 15 percent of a company’s total investment.

Lincoln Chamber of Commerce President Wendy Birdsall called the news  of Kawasaki’s expansion “phenomenal.”

She said chamber staff and state officials met with Kawasaki officials from Japan last fall and they expressed an interest in having a “long-term commitment in Lincoln.”

The expansion, Birdsall said, is “a true tribute to the Lincoln employees.”

Altogether Kawasaki’s rail car plant and consumer products plant, which makes Jet Skis, ATVs and utility vehicles, employ almost 1,400 people in Lincoln.

“Their impact on this community is immeasurable,” Birdsall said.

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.