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CSX Plans $50M Intermodal Facility in McKees Rocks
McKEES ROCKS, Pa. -- CSX Corp. today announced plans to design and build a $50 million intermodal facility here and in Stowe Township, Pa. The facility would create transportation saving opportunities by giving western Pennsylvania shippers direct intermodal freight rail access, allowing for the shift of long-haul freight from highway to rail and strengthening the transportation infrastructure serving the region's economy, the company said in its announcement.
"We look forward to deepening our long-standing relationship with the commonwealth of Pennsylvania through our commitment to invest up to $50 million on a facility that will create more economic opportunity for its residents and significantly enhance distribution opportunities for its businesses," said Michael J. Ward, chairman, president and CEO of CSX, in a prepared statement.
The proposed site in McKees Rocks would redevelop the former Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Yard, which operated for over 100 years. The project, to be called the Pittsburgh Intermodal Facility, will generate approximately 360 jobs during construction, the company said. Once operating, the facility will support approximately 40 on-site jobs, 40 drayage jobs and 100 indirect jobs throughout the region, CSX said.
CSX, based in Jacksonville, Fla., said it expects to complete planning, design, permitting and property acquisition for the approximately 65- to 70 acre Pittsburgh Intermodal Facility in 2014, with the goal of beginning the two-year construction process in 2015. As part of the design process, CSX said it will work with local officials to ensure the terminal supports local industrial development already in the planning stage.
"This intermodal facility is the biggest missing piece of a development puzzle that we have been assembling for over a decade," said Taris Vrcek, executive director of the McKees Rocks Community Development Corp. "CSX is a proven partner who has demonstrated how these facilities can have far-reaching impact and change market dynamics. When you couple this catalytic $50 million investment with the adjacent Rocks Industrial Park, $2 million in corporate commitments for Main Street development on lower Chartiers Avenue, and the $40 million reconstruction of West Carson Street, this signals a new beginning for McKees Rocks, Stowe Township and our neighboring communities."
According to a report in the Pittsburgh Business Times, the Maryland-based U.S. Silica Co. "is planning to establish a new transloading facility on a site lin McKees Rocks. The company is is one of the largest domestic producers of commercial silica, a specialized mineral for the oil and gas industry. In October 2012, S.H. Bell Co and U.S. Silica announced a partnership that would open a new silica sand storage building in East Liverpool, Ohio. At the time, U.S. Silica said it would ship its product to East Liverpool by river barge and railcar to support oil and gas customers in the Utica and Marcellus shale plays.
The Pittsburgh Intermodal Facility will use CSX's National Gateway project, an $850 million public-private partnership to create an efficient and environmentally friendly double-stack cleared rail corridor on the CSX network between the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest. Funded by CSX and its federal and state government partners, including a $35 million Pennsylvania Transportation Assistance Program Grant, the National Gateway will create more than 9,000 jobs in Pennsylvania.
In early September, the National Gateway coalition announced that the first phase of the project had been cleared, making way for double-stack intermodal rail service between CSX's intermodal terminal in Chambersburg, Pa., and its new hub facility in northwest Ohio.
CSX provides rail, intermodal and rail-to-truck transload services and solutions to customers across a broad array of markets. Its network connects every major metropolitan area in the eastern United States and also links more than 240 short-line railroads and more than 70 ocean, river and lake ports.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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