New Norfolk intermodal facility strengthens Crescent Corridor

The Memphis area is set to receive yet another major investment in rail following the ground breaking for Norfolk Southern's $105 million intermodal facility last week.

Once complete, the facility located on 380 acres in Rossville, Tenn., will serve up to 370,000 shipping containers and trailers annually and employ more than 400 people.

"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 CEO, in a statement. "

The new Norfolk facility is expected to be complete in 2012 and will include a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified administration building, high-tech gates and automated terminals and low-emission cranes.

"I'm excited about the jobs this project will bring to Fayette County and Tennessee," said Bill Haslam, Tennessee governor, in a statement. "My administration continues to focus on making Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high-quality jobs, and this project is indicative of why one of our target industry clusters for job growth is transportation, logistics, and distribution."

The Rossville Norfolk facility is part of a $2.5 billion project dubbed the Crescent Corridor program. The goal of the Norfolk program is to create 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.

In addition to the Memphis-area facility, the Crescent Corridor will include new intermodal facilities in Birmingham, Ala., Charlotte, N.C., and Greencastle, Pa., as well as expansions in the Harrisburg, Pa., intermodal terminal and the addition of freight rail capacity in Virginia and Mississippi.

Following completion of the Crescent Corridor, Norfolk officials expect the stretch of intermodal facilities to divert more than 637,000 long-haul trucks to rail saving more than 30 million gallons of fuel and reducing carbon dioxide reduction of 336,000 tons in Tennessee annually.

-- Trey Heath