(The following story by Dan Wallach appeared on the Beaumont Enterprise website on May, 1, 2009.)
BEAUMONT, Texas — A KCS train clattering eastbound over the Neches River made it hard to hear Port of Beaumont director Chris Fisher as he explained the port’s expansion plans.
This summer, after almost 15 years of talking about it, and seven years of working on a plan, the port will begin the project to move its railcar holding yard inside its property.
Here’s what the long-planned project means:
ÔÅÆ All but one the tracks between the river and the City Hall complex will be torn out.
ÔÅÆ The agonizing dance of backward and forward movement of trains on tracks blocking some city streets could become a much quicker jig.
ÔÅÆ The additional space for rail cars within the port, along with development on the Orange County side, positions the port for growth when the economy begins to recover.
The rail yard relocation project will cost about $16 million and more than $12 million of it is covered by federal grants. The port will pay the rest of it with its own revenue, Fisher said.
The project will last almost two years and the final piece of it is the demolition of the existing holding yard along Riverfront Park.
Operations must continue while the construction goes on, Fisher said.
The improvement, once completed, will be immediately noticeable as trains will be able to make a turn into the port from the KCS line in probably less than 10 minutes instead of the one to two hours it takes to put all the cars on the tracks along Riverfront, Fisher said.
The single track that will remain there belongs to Burlington Northern Santa Fe. BNSF also owns the line running across Calder Avenue west of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. BNSF pushes rail cars into its own holding yard in that area, so the traffic blocking will continue.
But the blocking that occurs along Pearl, Neches and Trinity streets in downtown should be greatly reduced, Fisher said.
The port will build its new holding yard along Buford Street inside port property so rail cars will be secure and under port camera surveillance.
The new yard will hold about 400 cars, up from the existing yard’s capacity of 120 cars.
Another yard extending south from the port near ExxonMobil Corp.’s Beaumont refinery will provide capacity for another 100 cars, mostly for KCS, and will connect to the railroad company’s tracks that run parallel to MLK Parkway toward Lamar University and Cardinal Drive.
The main benefit is the ability to bring in long trains in a single move, Fisher said.
As things operate now, a train pulls up to the turnoff just east of Main Street. The engine disconnects, moving onto another track to get into position to start pushing cars on the various tracks of the holding yard, like a person pulling on the fingers of a glove one at a time.
The necessity of splitting up the cars of a train is what causes the annoying back-and-forth that motorists see while they wait at a crossing.
Main Street, near the Beaumont police station, will remain closed while the rail yard relocation project is under way, though city officials said it is not “officially closed.”
Also, the city is working on creating a “quiet zone,” in which passing trains will not sound horns in downtown.
A train must sound its horn within a quarter-mile of an open crossing, such as the ones at Pearl, Neches and Trinity, and must keep it up in bursts until the engine passes.
Public works director Tom Warner said the city is in the preliminary stages of pursuing the quiet zone.
Fisher said the three railroad companies that serve the port, including KCS, BNSF and the Union Pacific, will come in on the new turnoff that will enter the port from its northern property line.
Ideally, Fisher said the port wants the tail of the longest train that comes in to clear the main vehicle entrance into the port when its engine reaches the new holding yard.
Across the Neches River, the port also plans another $5 million investment – most of it paid through grants – to improve a roadway and building tracks to serve a new dock.
The river already is dredged to 40 feet and can go to 48 feet once the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel’s quest for a deepening and widening project is approved.
The new dock will be 650 feet and can accommodate a vessel 1,000 feet in length, Fisher said.
Both projects point to progress for the people who depend on the port for jobs, said Mark Bridges, president of Local No. 1924 of the International Longshoremen’s Association.
The local represents 40 members who work as clerks and checkers. They ensure equipment delivered to the port matches shipping manifests and is undamaged. They perform the quality control function for the loading and unloading contractor.
Bridges said more than 600 pieces of military equipment will be delivered beginning Monday, and when the rail yard project is completed, it will make the work go much faster and efficiently.
On the Orange County side, Bridges said “the possibilities are endless.”
He said it could result in attracting containerized cargoes, which is the trend for ports.
“Open areas are being developed, and it attracts more work,” he said. “I think the port is going in a positive direction.”