The new intermodal terminal of Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s Logistics Park in the Chicago area is a combination of inter-modal vehicles and carload service with warehousing and trans-loading services. The Park is huge in being 1.5 miles in length and one mile in width and encompasses an area of 380 acres. The BNSF Logistics Park was opened with much fanfare and is a facility that is considered to be a new national model for freight logistics services. Introduced as a multi-nodal facility, it is designed to amalgamate services of direct rail, trucks, intermodal, and trans-load along with warehousing and distribution services at one location. Trains coming from the eastern railroad can enter the yard directly, which entails the saving of one to two days of movement through crowded terminals in Chicago. There is much to benefit from the new facilities especially in view of the constant increase in rail traffic and services.
The BSNF Logistics Park is the leading intermodal carrier for the rail industry and will enable customers to benefit from the synergies emanating from the widened I-55 as also from the growth opportunities arising from the planned warehouse and distribution centers in the metropolitan areas of Southwest Chicago. The development comprises intermodal facilities, automotive facilities, and the provision of trans-load and multi-user car load facilities. BNSF Logistics Park can build trains faster since it has its own switching yards and can combine automotive and intermodal train services to western areas. Initially, Phase I of the BNSF Logistics Park has included inter-modal facilities of 124 acres, automotive facilities of 151 acres, and storage and switching yard of 105 acres. Phase II of the Park will provide for added 245 acres to the Park. The facility provides for an efficient distribution within the Chicago market because international distribution can be consolidated from one location without any problems arising from the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest. As per the Railway Track and Structures report (2002), the inter-modal facilities will enable an efficient and fully serviced international container service for customers of BNSF.
The facilities envisage a lift capacity of three million with further room for expansion by 800,000 lifts annually. The “Gateway Hub’ facility at BNSF Logistics Park will be the first of its kind in coming up with auto trains for western areas. Automakers can thus make use of marketing strategies to benefit their businesses. The BNSF Logistics Park is close to the former mainline at Santa Fe and adjacent to Interstate 55. The vast 621-acre facility provides options for expansion and is the focal point for the 2200 acre inter-modal warehouse and distribution center of Center Point Properties in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. It is expected that the facilities at BNSF can handle over 1000 lifts per day. The present configuration of the intermodal facility comprises 124 acres, loading tracks of 8000 feet, and about thirty acres of parking space (Blaszak, 2003).
The infrastructure facilities in Chicago have become much constrained for both highway and rail, and the expedited highway and rail traffic flowing from the BNSF Logistics Park will greatly help in addressing the congestion issues facing the region and the nation as a whole. The inter-modal facilities will greatly shrink the number of local highway movements presently needed for repositioning containers and will assist in the servicing of the different international inter-modal locations in the Chicago region. As per a study conducted by the Chicago Area Transportation (CAT), there is going to be a significant increase in the number of trains in the Chicago region. There will be a growth of over 33% in the next twenty years from the present 1800, to 2400 services per day. The demand for inter-modal lifts in the Chicago area will also increase by 150% from the present figure of five million annual lifts to twelve million lifts in the next twenty years.
Premier services will be provided for the distribution and warehousing needs of clients located near the BNSF Logistics Park. It will assist in streamlining the flow of shipper traffic through the Chicago area by doing away with a large number of halts. Shipper flexibility will also increase with the incorporation of different means of transportation and associated services for distribution at one place. Clients of BNSF that are close to the Logistics park will be able to benefit from lesser costs by using rail transport which is almost 25% cheaper as compared to trucks (Prologis, 2009).
The facilities provided by BNSF are strategically located and will assist a great deal in reducing traffic congestion in the entire Chicago area by doing away with journeys between different transport facilities and warehouses and distribution centers. City planners will be able to manage the area developments in a better way around sites that are strategically located. When logistics are concentrated in one place, environmental issues can be managed efficiently. As per an article in News Blaze (2006), industrial developments in multi-modal areas will create more jobs by attracting firms that wish to expand and relocate warehousing, distribution, and transport facilities to a single and conveniently located site.
BNSF Logistics Park comprises a part of the 1,100 acres industrial facility being built close to the automotive and intermodal facilities. The place is named CenterPoint Inter-modal Center and is very appropriate for the different activities of warehousing, distribution, and small manufacturing facilities. CenterPoint Properties provides built-to-suit services, and after completion, the industrial Park is estimated to comprise over seventeen million square feet of construction that will range from buildings of 50,000 sq. ft. to over 1.5 million sq. ft. There is flexibility in the zoning requirements of the Park whereby different varieties of manufacturing and industrial activities will be permitted. This will pave the way for the construction of specific facilities that will include manufacturing plants, cross-dock buildings as also warehousing and distribution complexes. The facilities are easily accessible to Illinois Route 53 and Interstate 55 and are in close proximity to the Chicago Expressway System and Interstate 80.
References
- Blaszak Michael W, The 21st-century freight yard: BNSF’s Logistics Park near Chicago Trains; 2003; 63, 1; Research Library pg. 18
- News Blaze, BNSF’s 2005 Economic Development Efforts Lead to $1.3 Billion in Investments and More Than 7,000 Jobs.
- Prologis, ProLogis Acquires Land For Major New Distribution Park Serving BNSF Logistics Park-Chicago.
- Railway Track and Structures, BNSF opens Logistics Park-Chicago on site of former Joliet.