PHILADELPHIA — According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Norfolk Southern Corp. and the Delaware River Port Authority said yesterday that they had signed a final agreement to build a high-tech rail freight yard at the old Philadelphia Navy Base.
The project, first proposed in 1997, has been delayed many times. With the final agreement signed, construction could begin as early as this summer, Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said.
The port authority will finance the $16 million project and be repaid over 20 years.
The new yard will be adjacent to the rival CSX Corp. Greenwich rail yard and the port authority’s Ameriport yard, used by Canadian Pacific Rail. Both are across Columbus Boulevard from the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in South Philadelphia.
It will give the port of Philadelphia competing service from the three major railroads, port authority Chairman Manuel N. Stamatakis said.
The Norfolk Southern yard will occupy 136 acres of the old Mustin Field Naval Air Station at the east end of the former Navy base, now called the Philadelphia Naval Business Center.
Initially, the new yard will primarily handle the transfer of truck-size cargo containers between trucks and railcars, using the latest automated equipment and computer cargo-tracking systems. Some of the containers will be coming from or bound for ships docked on the waterfront.
Norfolk Southern said it might later expand the yard to handle automobiles or other freight.
Because the old base was built on fill dirt, it will take about 18 months to compact the soil enough to support the weight of trucks and trains, Husband said.