(The following story by Jennifer Feehan appeared on the Toledo Blade website on June 20.)
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — He doesn’t know how much or how soon, but Wood County Engineer Ray Huber is certain the CSX Transportation rail terminal planned just west of North Baltimore is going to have a big impact on village traffic.
“In anticipation of 70 trucks a day to start – that’s what they’re anticipating – I can see what’s going to happen to that community in short order,” Mr. Huber told Wood County commissioners yesterday.
He and Pat Dennis, a transportation planner with the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, came before the board to solicit support for making State Rt. 18 from I-75 to the CSX site a National Highway System freight connector route.
The designation, they said, could help with efforts to improve the two-lane highway. A portion of federal funds is dedicated to connector routes.
“We’re looking at another tool in our toolbox,” Mr. Dennis said. “We want the folks down there to know we have every tool available to us to help improve their neighborhoods.”
CSX plans to break ground later this year on the $80 million intermodal hub where freight will be loaded on shipping containers that ride railroad flatcars or truck trailers, depending on the destination. Garrick Francis, a CSX spokesman, confirmed that the terminal is expected to put 70 more trucks on the road every day once it opens in 2010. “We’re committed to working with everyone on the traffic issues and any of the local issues,” he said.
CSX has said it expects the rail yard to attract warehouses and distribution centers, bringing with them an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 jobs and more trucks.
Mr. Huber and Mr. Dennis stressed that there is no specific project proposed for State Rt. 18 at this time. If the development that is expected to occur happens, though, it might be logical for the Ohio Department of Transportation to consider a bypass around North Baltimore, they said.
As State Rt. 18 runs now, tractor-trailers traveling to and from the CSX yard from I-75 will have to pass through the village and make two sharp turns in town.
“In an ideal world, a bypass would be the way to go, but we’re nowhere close to that right now,” Mr. Dennis said.
Among the freight projects listed in TMACOG’s 2007-2035 transportation plan is construction of unspecified “road improvements from I-75 to CSX intermodal yard” and consideration of connections to State Rt. 235 and U.S. 6 to the west, State Rt. 613 to the south, and Cygnet Road to the north.
The county commissioners agreed to pass a resolution supporting the effort to have Route 18 designated as a freight connector just as the Council of Governments has done.
Mr. Dennis and Mr. Huber also have secured letters of support from village councils in North Baltimore and Hoytville and trustees in Henry and Jackson townships.
Kathy Healy, the North Baltimore village administrator, said it wasn’t difficult to persuade Village Council to support the idea. “We know it’s a few years off before the actual development is up out there, but we need to be looking ahead and preparing for it because to get a project on the state’s drawing board is no easy task,” she said.