Posted on August 28, 2017
By Joseph Bonney, JOC.com
Port Freeport is building a railyard with 21,000 feet of track to serve a 250-acre site that is adjacent to the Texas port and will be used for warehousing and distribution of synthetic resins, automobiles, and other cargo.
The site, known as Parcel 14, is part of the port’s effort to expand its container and vehicle shipment business and to take advantage of a coming boom in resin exports from new and expanded plants in the region.
A&R Logistics is setting up a bulk-to-containers packaging center for resins at an existing port warehouse and is considering future development of a larger packaging center at the site to be served by the new rail yard.
The rail project’s initial phase is scheduled to be completed in mid-2018. It will encompass a 6,000-foot lead track that will connect with a Union Pacific Railroad line and three 5,000-foot ladder tracks. The port hopes during the next few years to add four 5,500-foot tracks in a second development phase.
Jason Miura, the port’s director of business and economic development, said 80 acres of the Parcel 14 site are set aside for warehouse development, about 100 acres for vehicle storage and processing, and 20 acres for breakbulk cargo.
The site is next to state highway 36, which is part of a Texas International Freight Corridor that the port has been working to develop to link with rail and highway routes west of Houston, which is about 45 miles north of the port.
The port said the rail project has been a long-term objective for improving landside accessibility for the port and the petrochemical industry in Brazoria County, which is home to large plants of Dow Chemical and other manufacturers.
Freeport’s plans also include expansion of its container terminal by 2019, and dredging its 45 foot channel to 55 feet. The dredging project has won federal authorization but is awaiting appropriations.
Source: JOC.com
