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Fight over rail site: Norfolk Southern tries to persuade foes in Jefferson
(The following story by Ed Marcum appeared on the Knoxville News Sentinel website on July 3, 2009.)
JEFFERSON CITY , Tenn. — Norfolk Southern officials made a pitch Thursday to Jefferson County residents for a railroad facility in New Market where freight containers and trailers are transferred between trucks and trains - touting its economic benefits, trying to dispel rumors, but generally having a tough time swaying the crowd of about 300 gathered at Jefferson Middle School.
Many residents who spoke during a question-and-answer session said they didn't necessarily oppose the project but believed it would be better to build it at an industrial site in Mascot.
Robert E. Martinez, Norfolk Southern vice president of business development, said the undeveloped site along Highway 11E is preferred by the railroad corporation and other locations that also were studied would not be feasible for the facility, which would employ 77.
Martinez said the New Market site would help open Jefferson County and East Tennessee areas to a world economy.
"The reason you should support an intermodal facility is not the jobs it would bring at the facility. This is all about global access," he said.
The planned facility would allow trucking companies to transfer containers or trailers onto railroad flat cars to be shipped across the country, cutting down on transportation expenses. Norfolk Southern proposes to build the operation on 280 acres adjacent to New Market Elementary School. It would handle about 180 trailers or containers a day, plus about 67 other "bobtails," which are trucks that do not have separate trailers.
Martinez noted that about 400 acres are available near the preferred site for development of a business park, which could accommodate companies that would want to locate to New Market to take advantage of the railroad facility.
It would be Jefferson County's link to a system of rail lines and other intermodal operations that Norfolk Southern is planning called the Crescent Corridor, Martinez said. The corridor would be a 2,500-mile route linking the Gulf Coast to New England with connections to the Port of Virginia and to the West Coast via a route to Chicago.
Martinez cited studies by the University of Tennessee and by Insight Research Analysis, which he said were done independently, that calculated the operation's economic benefits to New Market and the region. Insight Research estimated 1,801 jobs would be added in New Market by 2020 and the UT study predicted 26,000-27,000 new jobs for Jefferson County by 2025.
Martinez also addressed what he said was wrong information circulating in the community about the project.
He said it is untrue that the operation could handle trucks carrying potentially deadly chlorine gas, noting that the facility would be prohibited by law to do this. He also characterized as false the notion that Jefferson County must come up with $23 million for the project.
The estimated cost of the facility is $60 million, which would be funded by state and federal grants plus Norfolk Southern funds, Martinez said.
"We are not asking the county for any money for that facility," he said.
Also, while Martinez said it is true that Norfolk Southern has authority to use eminent domain to take land for the facility, the company intends to negotiate a fair price for the land it will need.
Asked why the alternative Mascot site could not be used instead, Lee Cochran, manager of intermodal asset development for Norfolk Southern, said the site has too many hills and has a railroad track with too sharp of a curve to make it feasible for such development.
Monday, July 06, 2009
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