Rail yard contract awarded at Stockton port

Rail yard contract awarded at Stockton port Seeking to keep up with anticipated rail growth at the Port of Stockton, port officials Monday approved an $884,000 rail yard improvement project.
   Since 2000, annual rail traffic servicing the port has grown from 10,699 rail cars to 20,891 rail cars in 2006. The facility “is virtually stretched out to the maximum,” Deputy Port Director Mark Tollini told the Stockton Record.
   Port officials are rapidly expanding more than 1,500 acres of property obtained from a defunct U.S. Navy depot in 2000. The port's staff estimates that new development on the property within the next two years, such as an under-construction Lowe's distribution center, may increase port rail traffic by an additional 10,400 cars a year.
   After reviewing five contractors’ bids, ranging up to $1.5 million in price, the seven-member port governing board awarded the contract to low bidder H & H Engineering Construction Inc. of Stockton.
   Work on the project is scheduled to be completed by September, Tollini told the Stockton Record.