(The following story by Michael Tomberlin appeared on the Birmingham News website on July 10, 2009.)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Norfolk Southern said today it will invest $112 million on a new cargo-loading terminal on 316 acres in McCalla. The railroad company said construction will start early next year and the facility is set to open in 2012.
The economic impact on Alabama could reach $4 billion by 2020, a Norfolk Southern spokesman told reporters at a press event this morning. In that same time period, the railroad company is expected to add 600 jobs, while the project could generate as many as 8,000 spin-off jobs.
The intermodal facility will be built on land adjacent to its existing rail line in what is currently mostly farm land. The southwestern edge of the site is adjacent to the McAdory Elementary School.
The facility will be served by six intermodal trains a day, two more than currently run on the Norfolk Southern tracks through McCalla. It will have three loading tracks, 1,440 paved trailer/container parking spaces with a capacity to handle 165,000 truck trailers and shipping containers per year.
Rudy Husband, spokesman for Norfolk Southern, said the company has either purchased or has options to purchase all of the land needed for the project.
The site plan revealed today calls for an access road to run along the railroad right-of-way to another piece of property the railroad has already purchased behind the Sadler Ridge subdivision. That piece of property will give the new facility access to McAshan Drive for the hundreds of trucks that could end up visiting the facility daily.
The facility moves shipping containers between trucks and rail to make the shipping of goods more efficient along the railroad’s 2,500-mile Crescent Corridor from New Orleans to New Jersey. The facility hopes to reduce the number of long-haul trucks needed to carry the cargo, reducing the amount of fuel used and increasing safety on interstate highways.
A group of residents in the area have formed No Hub 4 McCalla, an opposition group that fears the new facility will bring unwanted noise, traffic and pollution, driving down property values in the rapidly growing area and making the neighborhood unsafe.