Portland approves third intermodal project

Portland approves third intermodal project    The Port of Portland said Monday its harbor commission has approved the second of two rail construction contracts for a project that is expected to increase intermodal volumes through the port’s Terminal 6 container facility.
   The project involves laying 1.4 miles of rail track that will connect the T-6 intermodal yard with both the Union Pacific and BNSF mainline tracks. The $2 million contract is the second part of a $6 million third rail lead project. In September, the port awarded BNSF a contract for construction of switching and track improvements at BNSF’s A and B Yards near T-6.
   The third rail lead will improve the port’s ability to expedite the arrival and departure of unit trains at T-6. The additional rail track will allow unit container trains to bypass the switching operations that take place on the existing rail lines at T-6. The new track will also provide equal access to T-6 for both BNSF and UP and support continued growth of the port’s auto importers, the port said in a statement.
   “Because Portland has a relatively small local containerized import market, developing T-6 into an intermodal gateway for containers is an essential component of the port’s strategy to attract and retain container services,” said Sam Ruda, the port’s marine director. “The T-6 on-dock intermodal yard can handle about 220,000 TEUs annually. The third rail lead will bypass this bottleneck and provide a new, direct, high-speed and high-capacity rail link from T-6 to the railroad mainlines.”
   Construction on both projects will begin this year and completed by July.