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Heartland Corridor up and running
 Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch

An event was held to celebrate the double-stacked trains now running along Norfolk-Southern's new Heartland Corridor on Monday, Sept. 13, 2010, in Prichard.

Norfolk-Southern CEO Wick Moorman, left, speaks with Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., during an event celebrating the double-stacked trains now running along Norfolk-Southerns new Heartland Corridor on Monday, Sept. 13, 2010, in Prichard.
Gallery: Heartland Corridor celebration
September 13, 2010 @ 10:55 PM

JEAN TARBETT HARDIMAN

The Herald-Dispatch

PRICHARD -- Increased potential for economic growth came rolling down the Norfolk Southern Railway in Prichard on Monday morning as the railroad company celebrated the completion of a decade-long project to increase freight capacity through parts of Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio.

The Heartland Corridor is now officially open for business, allowing the railway to double-stack containers on its trains and move more goods on a new route between the Virginia Coast and Columbus, and ultimately ending up in Chicago. To do so required the engineering and construction feat of raising the clearance on 28 tunnels, 23 of which were in West Virginia.

The public-private partnership -- which involves the railroad, the federal government and the states of Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio -- also includes planned construction of three intermodal facilities for easier transfer of containers between rail, roadways, rivers and airways. One is finished in Columbus, the Rickenbacker Intermodal Terminal. Another is planned for Prichard and a third is planned outside Roanoke, Va.

Those terminals are expected to lead to construction of surrounding warehouses and distribution centers, bringing hundreds and perhaps thousands of jobs to their towns, studies have shown.

The Heartland Corridor is expected to be heavily traveled, and it's not only more efficient for businesses that need to ship goods, but it's greener, the company says, taking freight off the nation's congested highways and putting it on the tracks.

It shortens transit time from Norfolk, Va., to Chicago from four days to three and is nearly 250 miles shorter than previous routes, Norfolk Southern says.

An engineering feat

After stepping off a south-moving double-stacked train in Prichard for the celebration ceremony, Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman described the project as one of the most remarkable railway engineering feats of all time.

Construction began in fall of 2007. Some of the tunnels were hundreds of feet long and others were thousands of feet long, and strung together equal 5.7 miles of tunnel work that needed to be done, including roof excavation and liner replacement and arched roof notching.

In some cases, tracks were lowered or centered to allow more clearance for the added containers. In cases that involved work on the roof, new crowns were added to prevent rock slippage from the towering West Virginia mountains atop the railway.

Other obstructions, such as utilities and bridges, were addressed as well, with all the clearance work totaling about $191 million, said Rudy Husband, director of public relations for Norfolk Southern.

Container freight is on an upswing in the United States, said West Virginia Sen. Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, who has been working on the project since the very early stages. The Rahall Transportation Institute, of which he is director, did a study more than 10 years ago on commodities trade, which geared up interest in creating a new Norfolk Southern double-stacked train route through West Virginia.

An expansion project to allow more cargo through the Panama Canal is expected to finish in 2014, and freight traffic through the eastern United States and Midwest is expected to really bulk up at that time.

Container freight is measured in TEUs, which stands for Twenty-foot Equivalent Units, Plymale said. In 1970 in the United States, the annual container shipments amounted to 1 million TEUs. That was up to 20 million by 2000, and is expected to reach 50 million by 2020, and 100 million by 2050, Plymale said.

"That's an economy in transition, and we want to be in that trend," Plymale said.

Celebrating progress

The corridor's opening was marked by a ceremony last week in Virginia and an open house in Columbus at the Rickenbacker facility, followed by Monday's celebration in Prichard. Along with presentations by company and government officials, it featured a luncheon and entertainment by the railroad company's own band, the Norfolk Southern Lawmen.

Several local officials were in attendance Monday morning, including U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., as well as state legislators, local mayors and representatives of local and state agencies involved in the project.

For a project that's been slow to come to fruition in Prichard, it's a good sign, said Patrick Donovan, executive director of the West Virginia Public Port Authority.

"The global economy is moving through our backyard right now," he said. "...Having it run through here puts more pressure on us to get it done."

While the Columbus facility opened in 2008 and the facility in Elliston, Va., outside Roanoke, is in discussions, the Prichard project is still "very conceptual," said Husband of Norfolk Southern.

"The interesting thing about this project is that it really got started right before the economy went into a tailspin," he said.

But it is recovering, and once the company gets a sense of the amount of train traffic on the corridor, it will have a more solid plan involving intermodal facilities in Prichard and Elliston, Husband said.

CEO Moorman said the company is still committed to a facility in West Virginia.

"We look forward to continuing our partnership with West Virginia in the intermodal arena, and it is our hope to build an intermodal facility just right up the road in years to come," he said.

Rahall also said he'll remain committed to the project.

"This intermodal facility at Prichard is vital, and I pledge my full support to make sure it becomes a reality," he said. He said the state has applied for "very competitive funding from the federal government" as well as working toward other funding avenues.

Environmental studies have already been done to prepare for construction on the site, which is 78 acres between U.S. 52 and the Big Sandy River. Next comes site prep work, along with the construction of a bridge to the site and an access road.

It will require 750,000 cubic yards of fill dirt, and will involve a partnership with the Federal Highways Administration and the West Virginia Division of Highways, Donovan of the Port Authority said. The Port Authority has $10 million to put into the project right now, along with $4 million from Federal Highways and a $1 million match from the DOH, he said.

Road construction along U.S. 52 that is going on concurrently will provide some extra fill dirt needed for the intermodal facility site, which will save a good deal of state money, Donovan said.

He added that right now, documentation is being completed to put the project out to bid, and then the actual work should begin in the spring. He expects it would take one construction season, and then the state could seek a private partner to build and operate the intermodal facility. It already sought proposals from potential private partners to operate the facility, but decided to hold off on that decision for lack of interest.

Local officials and residents said it was a comfort to know of Norfolk Southern's continued interest in the project in Prichard.

The Prichard community formed a citizens group to show organized support for an intermodal facility being built in town.

Their concerns have deepened in recent months as South Point, Ohio, has made quicker progress to build roadways and prepare for a river terminal for what will be a port for transferring goods between the Norfolk Southern Railway and the Ohio River.

Monday's event "is very promising. It shows the commitment of Norfolk Southern to the Prichard facility," said West Virginia Del. Don Perdue, D-Wayne, who also is the executive director of the Wayne County Economic Development Authority.

He said the commitment of Norfolk Southern and the federal government seems clear. Getting the state's commitment on par with that will help get the project done more quickly, he said.

Mark Berry, president of the Prichard Community Association, described Monday as "a great day for Prichard." Norfolk Southern will be a great neighbor, he said.

"We've been concerned. The scary thing is the South Point facility," said Berry, also general manager for Harbor Steel & Supply Corp. in Prichard.

"This part of Wayne County needs a shot in the arm," he said.