First train rolls at Port of Oakland’s new near-dock facility

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
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The new railyard provides 18,000 track feet and 19 turnouts and offers a place for the storage and inspection of trains near the busy Port of Oakland.
Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc.

The Port of Oakland has welcomed the first train to use a new, $100-million near-dock rail facility at the former Oakland Army Base.

 

The new tracks are located in the port’s Outer Harbor Intermodal Terminal area and designed as part of a strategy to enhance the port’s intermodal capabilities.

The port wants to attract more discretionary cargo through Oakland. The cargo on this train was originally destined for Canadian seaports.

The 100-car train carries agricultural products from Archer Daniels Midland Company from the Midwestern United States and headed to Asia. The cargo will be transferred from the rail cars directly into containers by port tenant Capital River Group and delivered to the terminals for export. The Port of Oakland has seen a growing market for agricultural products, especially from California’s Central and Salinas Valleys and the Midwest.

“The port envisioned a rail yard that would bring cargo through Oakland,” said Port of Oakland Maritime Director John Driscoll. “This was made possible by maritime business partners, such as Union Pacific and government funding partners.”

The new tracks are part of a phased rail expansion. They consist of five manifest yard tracks and eight support yard tracks. There is approximately 39,000 linear feet of track. Warehouses and distribution centers are also envisioned on the former Army Base.

The rail yard was built using California state Trade Corridor Improvement Funds and $15 million in federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants.

 

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