Straight to the heartland
Rail project to provide fast, high-capacity route to Chicago

by Jessica Sabbath
Virginia Business
May 2007

Call it a 200-mile shortcut. That’s the distance the $309 million Heartland Corridor Project will cut off the rail route for international goods making their way from the ports of Hampton Roads to Midwestern markets and beyond.

Design and engineering has begun to raise the ceilings of tunnels and remove obstructions along Norfolk Southern’s route from Norfolk to Columbus, Ohio.

As the project makes room for double-stacked port containers, it will knock more than a day from the current route — a huge improvement in efficiency considering that 29 percent of the port’s cargo is transported by rail. “It will boost the port’s competitiveness, and it will make transit of containers more efficient between the ports and the Midwest,” says Robin Chapman, public relations manager for Norfolk-based Norfolk Southern Corp.

Currently, trains with double-stacked containers bound for Chicago must travel either north through Harrisburg, Pa., or south through Knoxville, Tenn., on busy, roundabout routes. The corridor project will cut more than 200 miles off the path to Chicago. The project will make “a better connection between the ports of Virginia and the Chicago gateway to the western railroads and the country’s heartland,” says Chapman.

Norfolk Southern, the Federal Highway Administration and the states of Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio signed an agreement last year to release $95 million in federal funds dedicated to the project. Currently, environmental studies, design and engineering are being completed along the route for tunnel expansions and obstruction clearances. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2010.

The Heartland Corridor also includes the renovation of one and construction of two new intermodal terminals — facilities where cargo is transferred between rail and truck. The Rickenbacker Intermodal Terminal in Columbus is already undergoing its $62 million renovation and expansion.

The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation is searching for a site for the $18 million intermodal facility in the Roanoke area, although it has met some opposition from residents whose land the railroad would need to acquire for the project.

Meanwhile, West Virginia officials are looking for ways to fund a proposed intermodal terminal in Prichard, W.Va. Each terminal is expected to be a boon to the surrounding region. “[They] will enhance economic development in those areas by bringing businesses and potential businesses in those regions closer to the international markets,” says Chapman. “It will appeal to those businesses that need direct access to those markets.”

The federal government has provided the bulk of the funding, including $95 million for the corridor project and $30 million for the Columbus terminal. Virginia has promised $9.8 million to clear four tunnels in the state and $12.6 million for the Roanoke intermodal terminal. The rest of the funding comes from Norfolk Southern.

Plans also include a $60 million relocation of Commonwealth Railway Inc.’s lines in Portsmouth and Chesapeake away from residential neighborhoods to the median of Western Freeway, connecting faster rail to APM Terminals’ new Portsmouth facility and the future site of the Virginia Port Authority’s Craney Island Terminal. The 4.5-mile route will enable all trains to move more quickly and avoid many residential crossings. The project is being funded by the federal government, state government and Commonwealth Railway.

Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation are Hampton Roads’ major railroads, connecting its major ports and cities. The region’s smaller rail lines, the Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line and Eastern Shore railroads, provide interchange between the major railways.