The truck-rail intermodal facility at Prichard in Wayne County could be operational in two years, now that a construction contract has been awarded.
Mountaineer Contractors of Kingwood was awarded the contract based on its bid of $27,383,738.50, according to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.
The 71-acre intermodal facility site is along the Big Sandy River, Norfolk Southern tracks and U.S. 52 in northern Wayne County. It is part of the Heartland Corridor, a Norfolk Southern route carrying double-stacked container trains from Norfolk through Virginia and southern West Virginia to Columbus and Cincinnati.
When it opens in 2014, the terminal will give industries in West Virginia – including the Kanawha Valley – southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky better access to the fast-growing rail container shipping industry. Container shipping is a big growth item in the rail industry.
Although Norfolk Southern runs several container trains through West Virginia each day, there is no terminal in the state where containers are loaded or unloaded onto trucks. When the Prichard facility is finished, West Virginia shippers will have easier access to the corridor.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the West Virginia Public Port Authority $12 million to help build the facility. Other funding comes from the state's Special Rail and Intermodal Enhancement Fund.
"This facility is significant in bridging and leveraging our ability to compete with freight movement from Virginia ports to Chicago, Illinois port destinations. Our goal is to provide economic growth in the area as well as having a facility to alleviate our transportation corridors by utilizing rail," Paul Mattox, West Virginia secretary of transportation, said in a statement released in connection with the awarding of the construction contract.
Don Perdue, executive director of the Wayne County Economic Development Authority and a member of the House of Delegates representing Wayne County, said the first phase of construction will be a 40-acre area that can accommodate several hundred trucks. The rail siding is in place, and a bridge will be built over the railroad tracks to provide safe access from U.S. 52, he said.
The Nick J. Rahall Appalachian Transportation Institute at Marshall University is marketing the facility. It and the Wayne County EDA are also in talks with major national and international companies that ship worldwide, Perdue said.
"We're already getting calls from various industries and various people looking at the facility, and we expect that to ramp up," Perdue said.
Warehousing and distribution will be the primary businesses on the site, but plans include the eventual construction of an industrial park there, Perdue said. The nearby A. Michael Perry Industrial Park is full, he said.
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