MECHANICVILLE, N.Y. -- Work has yet to begin on the $40 million intermodal rail yard announced with great fanfare last July by then-state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, the Albany Times Union reports.
But that could change shortly.
Norfolk Southern has been receiving contractors' bids for the project, and an internal Norfolk Southern publication, BizNS, predicts the yard will be open sometime next year.
Construction could begin by mid-August, Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said Wednesday.
The railroad teamed with Pan Am Railways, formerly Guilford Transportation Co., and the two this spring began jointly operating a new entity, Pan Am Southern, which will own the corridor between the Capital Region and Ayer, Mass., outside Boston, as well as the Mechanicville yard.
Norfolk Southern has committed $140 million to the project, while Guilford supplied the tracks.
Norfolk Southern plans to move container trains between Chicago and Boston by way of the Capital Region, according to the article.
Because the double-stacked container trains are too tall to fit through the Hoosac Tunnel in western Massachusetts, Albany-bound containers will be stacked on top, with Boston-bound shipments on the lower level.
Husband said there are no current plans to increase the clearance in the 1875 tunnel.
With Albany containers removed at Mechanicville, the trains will be able to fit through the five-mile tunnel.
Westbound trains will have shipments from Albany added at Mechanicville.
Norfolk Southern also plans an automobile distribution yard, and it has a commitment from Ford Motor Co. to use the new yard, according to BizNS.
The yard is expected to employ 35 to 40 people when it opens, with that number rising to 85 by 2015.
(This item appeared July 30, 2009, in the Times Union.)
