Port of Quincy, Great Northern Corridor Coalition work to improve freight movement

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

The Port of Quincy in the state of Washington is partnering with the Great Northern Corridor Coalition to promote regional cooperation, planning and shared project implementation to improve the movement of rail freight along the Great Northern Corridor.

 

The Great Northern Corridor spans the northern tier of the western United States from the Puget Sound and the Lower Columbia River to Chicago through Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Representatives from these states (including the Port of Quincy in the state of Washington) make up the Great Northern Corridor Coalition.

The Port of Quincy has an intermodal terminal on the BNSF mainline, which goes from Seattle to Chicago and is only a few minutes away from I-90. The Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal includes 10,000 feet of track and a container maintenance and cleaning facility in close proximity to provide perishable, frozen and produce shippers with distribution and storage capacity in and out of the state of Washington. The intermodal terminal is home to the Cold Train, which was launched by Rail Logistics in early 2010 in partnership with the Port of Quincy and BNSF.

Currently, more than 203 million tons of freight moves annually over this corridor and serves 27 million Americans. The Great Northern Corridor Coalition is working to strengthen the corridor in order to promote economic growth for neighboring communities and accommodate the demand for safe, efficient and environmentally sound transportation services.

The first step of the Coalition’s process is underway, conducting a Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis to identify opportunities to improve the operations and infrastructure along the corridor. The study will be conducted by Olsson Associates, Parsons Brinckerhoff and The Beckett Group with funding through the Federal Highway Administration Multistate Corridor Operations and Management Program, as well as funding from coalition partners, including the Port of Quincy.
The next step to strengthening the corridor will be using the results from the SWOT analysis to develop viable strategies and projects that will improve multimodal transportation system management and operations. The analysis is expected to be completed by fall 2014 with analysis of identified projects and initiatives beginning immediately thereafter.

 

 

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