North American freight railroad network BNSF Railway is planning to develop a new logistics centre and renovate its existing 75-acre rail yard and mainline infrastructure at Sweetwater in Texas with an investment of $28m.
Expected to be completed by the end of summer 2014, the new logistics centre will help energy shippers across Texas in transporting their commodities such as fracking sand, aggregate, pipe, clay, barite and other drilling materials in the Permian Basin and Cline Shale.
In addition, the centre will also enhance agricultural transportation capacity in Texas through a partnership with Cape & Son, which is expanding operations to accommodate grain unit trains.
The comprehensive Sweetwater expansion will add 40,000ft of new tracks, upgrade the yard track and improve the branch line that serves Central Texas.
The rail yard renovation will realign some of the existing track to allow for loading grain unit trains.
Cape and Son president Geoff Haney said: “The efficiencies of shipping 110-car unit trains of agricultural commodities to and from our Sweetwater facility will provide regional cotton, grain and livestock producers with access to more competitive markets.”
Sweetwater Enterprise for Economic Development executive director Ken Becker said that the businesses in Sweetwater will gain better access to worldwide markets as BNSF brings new transportation solutions.
“The new facility means that Sweetwater will serve as a transportation hub for the entire region as the new shales of play continue producing new wells with the bright future of an estimated 30 billion barrels of recoverable oil in this part of Texas,” Becker added.
The capital improvement is part BNSF Railway’s network-wide investment of $4.3bn this year.