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A Firsthand Look at Intermodal Rail

Posted by Bob Gernert on November 20, 2007 at 4:52 pm

I was fortunate to travel to Alliance, Texas last week with City of Winter Haven representatives for an onsite visit to an intermodal rail facility and the offices of Hillwood (a Perot Company) responsible for master planning the surrounding business park. The land in use for the intermodal rail facility was 196 acres with room to expand. We were toured through the BNSF Railway facility by Glenn Smith, Senior Manager of Hub Operations and a 31 year BNSF employee. Smith opened the intermodal facility in 1994 and has directed the operations there since that time. We were given a thorough tour of the rail facility as well as the automotive terminal. Our hotel was approximately a half mile from the terminal adjacent to Interstate 35.

This entrance sign to the Alliance Center was just east of I-35. The building with tower in the background is a new retail center that includes restaurants and retail shops. This is approximately one half mile from the rail facility.

Observations and impressions.

The Alliance intermodal rail facility is very similar in size to the CSX facility now being planned in south Winter Haven. The Alliance center will complete approximately 600,000 lifts (loading a truck trailer-sized load on or off a rail car) in calendar 2007. That is three times the volume projected for the CSX site. The facilities were extraordinarily clean and orderly. Noise levels were low and at one point in the tour we were in a van immediately adjacent to the translift pictured below. With the driver’s window down we could easily carry on a conversation and the translift was operating.

Translift

The truck trips in and out of the center number 2000 on an average day to service the lifts described above. As the CSX facility projects 1/3 that volume, assuming similar hours of operation that would equate to about 670 truck trips per day here (335 in and 335 out). CSX has estimated slightly higher numbers.

Approximately a half mile across an open field from the intermodal rail center a new housing development is well underway. Average home prices according to Smith are from $200,000 to $1 million. A small community named Haslet is immediately adjacent to the rail terminal. Smith shared that since the terminal’s opening there had been no major issues with the residents of Haslet.

The automobile portion of the intermodal rail terminal has strictly controlled access. The rail cars have three levels of cars and workers attach ramps between the rail cars and automobiles are literally driven through the train to the exit ramp.

The surrounding business park has strict development standards that govern building color, landscaping and lighting. Those regulations are a part of the master plan controlled by Hillwood. City representatives were particularly interested in the quality of the development and the standards required to ensure the same type of quality here in the Winter Haven center. Our group also toured the business park at night observing the downlighting required by the building covenants. It was a clear evening and we could easily see the stars in the night sky.

The total acreage for Alliance is far greater than the project proposed here. Alliance occupies 17,000 acres north of Ft. Worth. The master plan for the project includes both business and residential uses. There is also a large “reliever airport” adjacent to the rail facility that was designed to relieve air traffic at the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport.

City officials traveling to the site included Assistant City Manager Dale Smith, Community Development Director David Dickey, Planner Jean Sobierajski, and Communications and Marketing Division Director, Donna Sheehan.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at jobs created - both direct and indirect - and economic impact.

See other entries filed in: CSX - Winter Haven, Perspective, Transportation