Norfolk Southern recently held a ground breaking ceremony build the new Memphis Regional Intermodal Facility in Rossville, Tennessee.
The $105 million facility is part of the multi-state $2.5 billion Crescent Corridor initiative to establish an efficient, high-capacity intermodal freight rail route between the South and the Northeast on Norfolk Southern’s rail network.
The new facility will be built on 380 acres in Fayette County and is expected to open in late 2012.
It is the second of four new Crescent Corridor intermodal terminals to be constructed or improved over the next two years.
“The Memphis intermodal facility will be an anchor of Norfolk Southern’s Crescent Corridor rail route connecting the Northeast and Southeast with high-speed, reliable, truck-competitive intermodal services,” said Wick Moorman, Norfolk Southern’s chief executive officer.
The Memphis Regional Intermodal Facility is expected to create or enhance 6,200 jobs in the Memphis region over the next 10 years, and its capacity will grow to handle 327,000 containers and trailers annually.
The Crescent Corridor is a program of independent projects and improvements geared toward creating a high-capacity, 2,500 mile intermodal route from New Jersey to Louisiana that touches 26 percent of the nation’s population and 30 percent of the nation’s manufacturing output.
It provides the shortest intermodal double-stack route between the South and the Northeast.
The Crescent Corridor program of projects is estimated to cost $2.5 billion for full development.
When the Crescent Corridor is fully operational, annual benefits to Tennessee are expected to include more than 637,000 long-haul trucks diverted to rail, more than 30 million gallons of fuel saved, carbon dioxide reduction of 336,000 tons, more than $103 million in traffic congestion savings, and an estimated $26 million in accident costs avoided.
