(The following story by Larry Lockhart appeared in the Casa Grande Valley Newspaper on November 27, 2007)
CASA GRANDE, AZ – Union Pacific Railroad is working on two huge projects involving Pinal County, though residents may not see any physical progress on either one for at least another year.
One is a proposed rail yard near Red Rock. The 1,500-acre site could help Union Pacific serve customers in the Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales and the Casa Grande Valley, including Casa Grande, Maricopa, Eloy and Coolidge. Most of the work in the next year or so will be toward land acquisition.
The other is double-tracking the mainline of the former Southern Pacific Sunset Route from El Paso, Texas, to Los Angeles. The railroad is adding a second mainline track along the entire length of the 757-mile line, allowing more trains to move more efficiently with less waiting for motorists at grade crossings. Resolving grade-crossing issues will be the main thrust locally in 2008 before construction can begin.
Combined, the projects add up to about a $1 billion capital investment in Arizona alone. The double-tracking will have some impact through jobs and outside workers staying near job sites, and the Red Rock Yard eventually would employ up to 290 workers, including about 100 new jobs, once the construction phase was complete. The other jobs would be shifted from Tucson.
Planning for the Red Rock Yard has generated the most interest – and controversy – in Pinal County. Some neighbors have voiced concerns about a variety of perceived problems, including noise, emissions, groundwater and fuel spills. UP officials are working to dispel those fears, going so far as to join forces with economic development organizations to demonstrate that their interests coincide with local interests of communities and organizations along the rail line.
“The Tucson, Phoenix, Nogales, Casa Grande market has had 42 percent growth since 1999,” said Luis Heredia, director of public affairs for the railroad in Arizona and New Mexico. “That’s close to 45,000 cars” in additional annual traffic.
Increasing logjam
As more business is generated in south-central Arizona, UP experiences more of a logjam. Carloads arriving for those businesses are collected from incoming trains until enough carloads, perhaps 50 or so, are on hand to justify the expense of sending out a local train to drop off the cars at their destinations. In the meantime, those cars need to be stored somewhere. UP hopes that somewhere eventually will be the Red Rock Yard. The switchyard also would serve as a collecting point for carloads of products being shipped out of south-central Arizona.
Heredia explained that UP has submitted an application to the State Land Department for the 1,500 acres east of Picacho Peak. Much of that land currently is leased for agricultural purposes.
The state has to get the land assessed, then submit it at a public auction where Union Pacific would bid for it. The railroad believes the state eventually will auction off more land in the Red Rock area than just the 1,500 acres it hopes to acquire. Of that 1,500-acre parcel, only about 585 acres would be used for the switchyard; the remainder would provide a buffer and be available for future growth. Proceeds from the sale of state land is used to support education.
UP hopes to begin construction in 2009 and open the yard in 2010. It would be used for switching, fueling, car repair and crew changes. The railroad, and many growth planners, envision the whole Interstate 10 corridor from Casa Grande to Tucson eventually being developed.
Finding a prospective site for the yard was a challenge due to the project’s requirements: that it be adjacent to the mainline, centrally located to serve the Phoenix and Tucson areas (including Nogales and Casa Grande), a minimum track length of approximately six miles, a very flat grade (less than 0.4 percent), minimal conflicts with grade crossings, minimal water use conflicts and a location away from residences and schools.
The railroad is trying to alleviate fears of neighbors and others regarding perceived detrimental effects of the Red Rock Yard. There seem to be four main areas of concern:
— Fuel: Heredia explained that fuel containers would be double-lined for safety, with no underground storage. Electronic monitors would help spot any leakage problems so they could be corrected quickly.
— Air: Diesel locomotive particulate emissions have been lowered considerably in recent years, and in fact trains emit less particulate matter than the thousands of trucks driving parallel to the yard on Interstate 10, Heredia said. The first 60 of UP’s new Genset switch engines were delivered in January. The 2,100-horsepower locomotives are powered by ultra-low-emission diesel engines that reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides by 80 percent and particulate matter by 90 percent, while using 16 percent less fuel than other low-horsepower locomotives, the railroad said. The fuel savings for a Genset switcher translate into at least 16 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
— Noise: Much of the switching would utilize gravity, with retarders used to slow the cars as they are switched. “The sound is minimal,” Heredia said, again noting that neighbors and passersby would be much more aware of sound from the adjacent I-10.
— Water: The switchyard would use less water than if the land were in agricultural use, Heredia said, and safeguards would protect against spills that might eventually leach into the aquifer and taint the water supply. A water treatment plant located at the switchyard would comply with Arizona Department of Environmental Quality standards.
Union Pacific even has coordinated with the U.S. Department of Defense to make sure the switchyard lighting would comply with the dark skies initiative so as not to interfere with military helicopter night training based nearby at Pinal Air Park.
Heredia said the railroad has retained a water attorney, hydrologist and environmental attorney who are available to meet with groups to address concerns.
Opponents of the project had organized under the name Save the Peak, and had spoken out at meetings and erected a billboard alongside I-10. None could be reached for comment.
Double-tracking
The railroad is in the middle of a multiyear project to double-track its Sunset Route mainline from El Paso to LA. When UP absorbed Southern Pacific in 1996, only 152 miles of the route were double-tracked. Since then, UP has added about 75 miles per year. Much of 2008 is likely to be spent addressing grade-crossing concerns for the segment from Tucson west to Mobile, about 10 miles west of Maricopa. The railroad hopes to complete double-tracking of that segment the following year.
That segment – which includes Eloy, Casa Grande and Maricopa – includes the most grade crossings along the route, 38 in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties. Arizona has a total of 50 at-grade crossings that would be rebuilt as double-track crossings. Each crossing requires separate approval from the Arizona Corporation Commission.
UP encountered a problem almost immediately upon beginning work in the state when a subcontractor that had started work in New Mexico and followed the line into Arizona rebuilt a grade crossing at the town of Bowie before the ACC had approved the work. Needless to say, the commissioners were not happy and the railroad had egg on its face at a time when it needed to be cooperating fully with state regulators.
“Lesson learned,” Heredia said of the mistake. “That was an unfortunate situation.”
He pointed out that all grade crossings go through an administrative process with the ACC that is open to the public. The railroad also must work with local governmental entities to determine which crossings can remain as grade crossings and where other measures must be taken, such as building an overpass or underpass.
One such decision currently is under study in Maricopa, where Arizona 347 crosses the UP tracks near the busy intersection with Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway and adjacent to the city’s Amtrak station. The highway also provides access to Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino Resort.
Increasing capacity the length of the route will allow the railroad to clear up some bottlenecks in train movement and create capacity for more trains. Union Pacific currently runs 45 to 50 trains daily along the route, but anticipates that climbing to 84 to 86 trains per day by 2016. Despite that growth, motorists actually might experience shorter delays waiting for trains. That’s because trains move much more slowly on much of the route now because they must pull into and out of sidings frequently to allow other trains to pass in the opposite direction. If a train goes over a grade crossing at 40 to 60 mph, the normal mainline running speed, it obviously takes much less time than a train averaging perhaps 10 mph as it enters or leaves a siding.
Heredia pointed out that a single double-stack train (with two levels of containers on flatcars) carries the amount of freight that would require 280 trucks on adjacent I-10. And the increased rail capacity is important because the U.S. Department of Transportation is predicting a 55 percent increase nationally in rail freight traffic between 2000 and 2020. The increase is likely to be even bigger in Arizona, the fastest-growing state in the U.S. by Census Bureau counts.