(The following article by George Hohmann was posted on the Charleston Daily Mail website on November 30.)
CHARLESTON, WVa. — Ground is expected to be broken before next July on a $150 million project that will allow Norfolk Southern trains with double-stacked cargo containers to travel through southern West Virginia.
The project, known as the Heartland Corridor, will involve raising 28 railroad tunnels along Norfolk Southern’s main line through Virginia and West Virginia so double-stacked containers can be shipped between the port of Hampton Roads and Chicago – a distance of 1,031 miles.
The project will cut 233 miles and more than a day’s travel time for trains moving between the two locations. Proponents say it also will provide an efficient alternative to trucks and promises to reduce highway congestion.
Robin Chapman, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern Corp., said the railroad has contracted with the New Jersey-based engineering firm of Hatch Mott MacDonald for engineering and design studies.
“We anticipate breaking ground in the second quarter of 2007,” Chapman said. The project is expected to be finished toward the end of 2009.
Early this year, Congress approved $95 million for the project. Chapman said all of the funding for the corridor is in place. However, $18 million needed for the construction of an intermodal terminal at Prichard, just south of Huntington, has not yet been lined up.
The Heartland Corridor clearance construction can be finished and the line can begin hauling double-stacked containers without a terminal at Prichard. But the Prichard terminal is needed if West Virginia and Kentucky businesses are to reap the benefits of the corridor.
Patrick Donovan, executive director of the West Virginia Public Port Authority, said the Prichard terminal “is the connection that gets us into the global supply chain. It would provide unprecedented connectivity out of southern West Virginia.
“What people are having a hard time with is, the economic development does not happen on the site,” he said.
The warehousing and distribution happens within a 50 to 75 mile radius of the terminal.
“There are 63 counties in four states that can be served economically from that site,” he said.
It has been estimated that exporters could save 10 percent to 15 percent from current costs by using a terminal at Prichard. “Our timber industry is a big exporter that lends itself to containerization,” Donovan said.
Also, “we’re really excited about the import potential,” he said. The citizens of Panama recently voted to expand the Panama Canal and the port of Hampton Roads is the biggest port in Virginia. “There’s going to be a lot of freight coming our way – a lot that needs to be warehoused and distributed to the Midwest market,” he said.
Donovan hopes to issue a request for proposals by the end of the year for a study that would:
• Confirm earlier findings that a Prichard terminal is a sound idea. The study needs to show that the terminal will create jobs, generate tax revenue, provide transportation savings to shippers and provide global connectivity, he said.
• Identify potential funding sources. Money could come from the state and federal government and private industry, he said.
Donovan said the port authority has a $1 million grant from Norfolk Southern to pay for the study.
If, as expected, the study shows the Prichard terminal continues to be a sound idea, the hope would be to get it built and opened at the same time the Heartland Corridor goes into service. It will probably take about 18 months to build the terminal, he said.
Norfolk Southern did some pre-engineering studies and determined that a truck-rail terminal could be built on 78 acres at Prichard that could load or unload 30,000 to 50,000 containers a year, Donovan said.
The initial plan for Prichard does not call for a dock, although the Big Sandy River is next to the property. Donovan said the authority, in partnership with the West Virginia Development Office, has asked Congressman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., for a study of the Big Sandy to see if the navigation channel could be extended four to six miles to the terminal property. It would cost the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about $100,000 to conduct that study, he said.
Donovan said West Virginia’s congressional delegation has been very supportive “and I think they will continue to be if we can show them” the terminal’s value.
Chapman said funds for terminals at Columbus, Ohio, and Roanoke, Va., have already been lined up.
In August the Columbus Regional Airport Authority awarded a $30 million contract to a construction company to build the Columbus terminal. The Federal Highway Administration is contributing $27.7 million to the project with Norfolk Southern funding the rest.
A study conducted for the Columbus Regional Airport Authority estimates the intermodal terminal there will help generate 9,500 jobs over the next 30 years.
Roanoke is hoping an $18 million terminal to be built near that city will attract large distribution centers and give the Roanoke economy a boost.
Virginia already has one inland port, at Front Royal, Va. According to a study presented to the Virginia Port Authority in 2004, 24 major companies have located distribution centers near that terminal, investing more than $599 million and employing more than 7,000 workers.
Donovan said Home Depot opened a one-million-square-foot facility at Front Royal “solely because of the inland port. It’s the same thing when you talk to these warehousing and distribution people. They move everything by containers.”
The terminal planned at Roanoke may serve businesses in Bluefield and Princeton and along the Route 460 corridor, Donovan said.
“This corridor is going to have an impact all through West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and maybe Tennessee,” he said.