BNSF OPENS CHICAGO LOGISTICS PARK

BNSF OPENS CHICAGO LOGISTICS PARK    The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. has opened a new multimodal freight logistics center in Chicago.
   The BNSF Logistics Park ' Chicago is designed to integrate direct rail, truck, intermodal and transload services with distribution and warehousing in one location, the company said.
   Located next to BNSF's rail routes linking Chicago with Southern California and the Pacific Northwest, as well as being adjacent to the expanding Interstate 55, the $250-million facility comprises a 124-acre intermodal facility, a 151-acre automotive facility and a 105-acre multi-user carload and transload facility. The facility also has its own switching yard, allowing BNSF to build trains faster and combine intermodal and automobile trains to western markets.
   A second phase, already under lease, will add another 245 acres. BNSF also has an option to expand by another 200 acres.
   The intermodal facility, which opens today, initially serves Maersk Sealand and their container traffic moving from ports in Southern California and the Pacific Northwest. The facility will initially increase BNSF's Chicago intermodal lift capacity by 400,000 units to nearly 3 million annual lifts, with expansion for another 800,000 annual lifts. The facility will also enable BNSF to consolidate Chicago international distribution at a single location regardless of West Coast origination, the company said.
   The logistics park's automotive facility, which opened in September, is dedicated to building automotive trains for all western markets. Among the shippers already using the facility are American Honda Motor Co., American Isuzu Motors, American Suzuki Motors, Ford Motor Co./UPS Logistics, Hyundai Motor America, KIA Motors America, Mitsubishi Motor Sales, Nissan North America, and Subaru of America.
   BNSF's logistics park is also tied in with an adjacent 1,100-acre industrial park being developed for a variety of distribution, warehousing and light manufacturing uses.
'The park will enable shippers to take advantage of projected distribution center and warehouse growth opportunities southwest of Chicago using part or a combination of the intermodal, automotive or multi-commodity transload facility,' BNSF said.