(The following story by Gregory Richards appeared on The Virginian-Pilot website on June 30.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk Southern Corp. plans to build its new southwestern Virginia intermodal terminal in the rural Montgomery County village of Elliston, county officials announced this week.
The $18 million shipping yard will be where truck-size cargo containers heading to and from the port of Hampton Roads are transferred between trains and trucks. It is part of the $251 million Heartland Corridor project to allow trains stacked two-high with containers to travel a more direct route between the port and Chicago.
The site, just off Interstate 81, consists of roughly 50 acres, according to a county news release.
That is the only location still being looked at for the terminal, said Robin Chapman, spokesman for the Norfolk-based railroad.
The company previously had said only that the terminal would be near Roanoke, where the railroad’s main east-west and north-south corridors cross.
The railroad is in discussions with property owners to acquire those tracts, Chapman said Thursday. He added that he didn’t believe any of the parcels had already been purchased.
“It’s all still very preliminary,” he said.
Norfolk Southern isn’t breaking out how much the land might cost, but Chapman said the terminal’s $18 million price tag includes both construction of the facility and buying the property. Seventy percent of the cost is being paid by the state, with the railroad paying the remainder.
The state agreed in May to help pay for the terminal because it will improve access to international markets for businesses in western Virginia and reduce highway congestion, particularly on the already busy I- 81.
The terminal is scheduled to open by 2010, Chapman said.
Montgomery County is “extremely pleased” to be selected for the project, Steve L. Spradlin, chairman of county’s Board of Supervisors, said in the release.
Most of the property being looked at is farmland, with some scattered homes, said county spokesman Robert Parker.
The Heartland Corridor also includes building intermodal terminals in Prichard , W.Va., and Columbus, Ohio, as well as raising the ceilings of 28 railroad tunnels to permit the passage of the taller trains.