Area Development
Ground was officially broken today in Alabama on Norfolk Southern's new Birmingham Regional Intermodal Facility. The $97.5 million facility occupies a 316-acre site adjacent to the Jefferson Metropolitan Park in McCalla. It is part of the railroad's multi-state Crescent Corridor initiative to establish an efficient, high-capacity intermodal freight rail route between the Gulf Coast and the Northeast. The facility is slated to open in late 2012.

"The Birmingham Regional Intermodal Facility is ideally located to serve the Southeast and is a critical component of our Crescent Corridor," said Norfolk Southern's CEO Wick Moorman.

The Birmingham Regional Intermodal Facility is expected to create more than 8,500 jobs in central Alabama over the next 10 years. The terminal will utilize the latest in gate and terminal automation technology, which shortens the waiting time for trucks entering the terminal, improving truck driver productivity and air quality. Annual capacity at the terminal is expect to grow to 165,000 containers and trailers.

The Crescent Corridor program comprises independent projects and improvements geared toward creating a high-capacity, 2,500-mile intermodal route reaching from New Jersey to Louisiana. The route encompasses 26 percent of the nation's population and 30 percent of U.S. manufacturing output. It provides the shortest intermodal double-stack route between the South and the Northeast. When fully operational, developers claim it will produce the following estimated annual public benefits:

In addition to the McCalla facility, Crescent Corridor projects currently planned for development - at a total cost of $2.5 billion - include new independent intermodal facilities at Charlotte, N.C.; Greencastle, Pa.; and Memphis, Tenn., as well as the expansion of the Harrisburg, Pa., intermodal terminal and the addition of freight rail capacity in Virginia and Mississippi.