(The following article by Chuck Mueller was posted on the San Bernardino County Sun website on December 22.)
BARSTOW, Calif. — The trucks that will serve a future food distribution center in west Barstow are likely to speed up plans for a long-envisioned, $23 million railroad overpass on Lenwood Road.
Wal-Mart will build the 880,000-square-foot warehouse on 160 acres just north of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway’s main line, paralleling Main Street in unincorporated Lenwood. Up to 700 new jobs will be created.
The overpass, expected to be a four-lane span over the tracks, is among top priority projects for San Bernardino Associated Governments, the county’s transportation planning board, said city spokesman John Rader.
Congress has allocated $1.2 million for design and engineering costs.
The city and San Bernardino County have allocated $50,000 each. Sanbag is expected to allocate $1.6 million for design work and is expected to pursue additional future funding.
The overpass site is in Barstow’s industrial park, recently designated as part of a new enterprise zone that will offer tax and hiring incentives to entice businesses to the area.
The special zone, an east-west extension paralleling Main Street, will offer a package of state and local tax incentives.
“While the overpass project would be in the county, it is vital to the city in view of the Wal-Mart Center, the adjacent Valmont-Newmart concrete pole plant and other businesses on Lenwood Road,” Rader said.
The federal government is targeting railroad grade separations at major thoroughfares in an effort to speed movement of railroad freight and to reduce accidents at crossings.
Every day up to 100 trains operated by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad use the double tracks.
“The Southern California Association of Governments and Sanbag have been working for several years to obtain money to build regional grade separations,” Rader said. “Barstow is one of a number of communities vying for a share of the $600 million needed in San Bernardino County for grade separations.”
He said regional agencies predict an 80 percent increase in freight movement on Southern California’s railroad by 2020. That translates into a train every 10 minutes.
In response to this dramatic growth, the new $2.4-billion high-speed rail system called the Alameda Corridor will speed cargo eastward from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
“Transportation planners are concerned about the corridor’s impact on street traffic (in the Inland Empire) as more freight trains roll eastward, carrying cargo from Asia to markets in the eastern United States,” Rader said.
In Victorville, plans are under way to carry containerized cargo by rail to Southern California Logistics Airport for storage and reshipment.
Mayor Mike Rothschild said a three-mile-long rail spur will be built to the former jet training base, converting part of the airport into a warehousing complex containing 60 million square feet of commercial space.
Victorville officials envision receiving thousands of tons of appliances, clothing and electronics goods that arrive at the Port of Long Beach from the Far East.