(The following story by Drew Perine appeared on The News Tribune website on December 27.)
TACOMA, Wash. — By next fall, trains should be able to move in and out of Tacoma’s Tideflats a little faster thanks to a series of rail improvements approved by the Port of Tacoma Commission.
The $9.8 million project combines improvements on Chilcote and Bullfrog junctions, the Tideflats’ two main rail junctions where trains enter and leave the port or its terminals.
“It’s one thing to get a lot of containers in, but the secret is to get them out to where they need to go,” said Commissioner Connie Bacon. The commission authorized a call-out for bids on the rail project at its last meeting. The work should begin in early 2006 and be completed by the fall.
Jeannie Beckett, the port’s senior director of inland transportation, said the improvements have been on the drawing board for years as the port waited to move forward until the project was needed. And that time is now, the port says.
Roughly 70 percent of the 2.1 million containers that came through the port this year arrived or left on a train. The port saw an estimated 38 percent increase in its intermodal lifts – the number of containers lifted on and off trains – in 2005. The port anticipates 20 percent growth next year and consistent increases each year after that through 2009.
Bullfrog Junction consists of two main tracks that handle all the rail traffic to and from the Tideflats. As part of the improvements, the port will add a third track and reconfigure where the tracks cross each other. The improvements will allow Union Pacific and BNSF Railway trains to move through the junction at the same time, instead of waiting for one to come through as they sometimes have to do now, Beckett said. It also will make the junction safer and provide a way for trains to pass through if something blocks the other tracks.
“What we are doing is adding redundancy and flexibility,” Beckett said.
At Chilcote Junction, the improvements mean that trains will have more choices of track to move on and off the Pierce County and Washington United terminals, and will allow trains to move in and out of the terminal yards at the same time.
Other improvements include adding sensors that track the train cars and improving lighting around the tracks at both junctions. A rail development study completed last spring identified six priority projects that should be completed before 2008. Bullfrog and Chilcote junctions are the first two of those projects.
Gus Melonas, spokesman for BNSF, said the company has been working with the port to enhance service and meet shipping demands.
Dan McCabe, Tacoma Rail supervisor of business and technology, agreed with Beckett that the improvements will provide greater flexibility and prepare the port for more rail improvements.
Trains still will be able to use the junctions during the project. Beckett said the new Tacoma Command Center – a partnership among Tacoma Rail, the port and the two major railroads that coordinates rail traffic in the Tideflats – will help keep things moving during the work.