Post by truckerusa on Nov 12, 2009 23:50:12 GMT -5
Norfolk Southern touts VIP as New Market's intermodal future
by Jim Matheny
Norfolk Southern is attempting to buy hundreds of acres in Jefferson County next to its existing rail line with the intention of building a new intermodal transport facility. The railroad says the train-to-truck cargo terminal will be a huge economic benefit to New Market and East Tennessee. Yet, some residents say the proposed location is an unnecessarily destructive choice that could irrevocably damage the area and their quality of life.
See the "Related Links" section of this page for a timeline of previous WBIR stories on the proposed intermodal facility.
Residents of Warren County, Virginia, heard the arguments in favor and against constructing an intermodal terminal more than two decades ago. In 1989, the Commonwealth of Virginia built an intermodal train-to-truck terminal known as the Virginia Inland Port (VIP) near the city of Front Royal.
Norfolk Southern has pointed to the VIP as the model of intermodal success it hopes to replicate physically and economically in Jefferson County. In a two-part series, 10News toured the Virginia Inland Port and spoke to residents who live near the facility to see exactly what could be on New Market's horizon.
Inside the Virginia Inland Port: The railroad's perspective
The rolling fertile hills of the Shenandoah Valley near Front Royal, VA, are incredibly similar to the terrain of New Market, TN. Both regions are also intersected by major rail lines that are near multiple interstates.
If Norfolk Southern has its way, the landscapes of New Market and Front Royal will share another feature in the form of an intermodal train-to-truck cargo terminal. The Commonwealth of Virginia built the Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal in 1989, where it is owned by the Virginia Port Authority and operated by Virginia International Terminals.
"When we built this in 1989, people said we were crazy," said Joe Harris, spokesperson for the Virginia Port Authority. "This inland port allows us to ship cargo by train to and from our sea ports that used to rely entirely on trucks. Shipping by rail is less expensive and it helps ease congestion on our highways between here and Norfolk from all of those trucks."
"In order to be competitive with truck traffic, we need to set up intermodal terminals," said Susan Terpay, spokesperson for Norfolk Southern during a tour of the Virginia Inland Port. "In terms of size and layout, at New Market this is what you would see. We chose the site at New Market because it best fit our criteria that would need the acreage, that it would be flat, and you have room for additional businesses to locate around it so there is room for it to grow."
The terminal is several hundred yards from the main road and settled in a natural depression. A large berm and trees hide much of the facility and its hundreds of large steel boxes.
"We wanted to minimize the visual impact of this terminal and remain below the tree line. We don't want people to drive by and think, 'Wow, what an ugly facility.' At most, we have two containers stacked on top of each other. The tallest things out here are for our straddle carriers," said Harris.
Straddle carriers are large vehicles that are used to stack and move the intermodal containers from the trains to truck chassis. Drivers maneuver the vehicles to straddle the train cars, lift the containers above the train, then move them to another portion of the terminal.
"The containers are steel boxes. At each of the eight corners of a container, there is a corner casting," said James Davis, supervisor with Virginia International Terminals. "Those corner castings have an oblong hole. The straddle carrier locks into those holes and pick them off the rail car."
Containers are then placed on truck chassis or stacked on the ground depending on when it is scheduled to depart the terminal.
"None of the cargo is packed or unpacked from the containers at the terminal," said Terpay. "The containers remain sealed and are loaded and unloaded by the shipper. There are no hazardous materials. These are items like electronics or other things you might find in any Target store."
The proposed New Market terminal would be just one stop along Norfolk Southern's "Crescent Corridor." Terpay said 95 percent of shipping between the southeast and the northeastern United States is by truck. The railroad hopes to shift that trend towards long-distance shipping via intermodal rail to small hubs, then utilize trucks for short-distance shipping to distribution centers and warehouses.
"This is also a cleaner alternative to trucks, which is why the governors of several states, including Tennessee, have applied for federal grants to help construct the Crescent Corridor," said Terpay.
Terpay points to the Virginia Inland Port as an example of the long-term economic benefits of an intermodal terminal.
"They are proven economic engines. They bring jobs, they bring additional businesses, and they bring tax revenue," said Terpay.
"It took us 20 years to get to this point," said Harris. "It was not overnight. It was around 1995 before this really started to take off. But as a result of the VIP, you have 25 companies that have located here as a result of this. The investment for the tri-county region has been in excess of $600 million and the employment of more than 7,000 people."
"It was another asset in our recruitment of businesses and why they need to relocate in our community," said Doug Stanley, administrator of Warren County, Virginia. "They have been a good neighbor."
Getting an intermodal terminal off the ground in New Market will be a much different task than what transpired in Virginia.
Stanley said the original owners of the land now occupied by the VIP approached the state and proposed building the terminal on their property. That contrasts sharply with the situation in New Market where the preferred location was chosen before approaching the owners of the property. Many of the property owners in Jefferson County object to the proposed site and have indicated they will not sell their land.
Another difference will be the public-private partnership proposed for New Market. The site in Jefferson County would be owned and operated by Norfolk Southern rather than the state. The Commonwealth of Virginia developed much more than an intermodal terminal in Front Royal.
"In essence, we acquired the land around the terminal and developed it into an industrial park. We installed the infrastructure like water and sewer, then marketed it to companies as a potential site for their distribution centers," said Stanley.
Despite these differences, Harris believes over time the site in New Market would have a lot more in common with Front Royal than not.
"There are a lot of jobs tied to moving these boxes and what is inside them. It's hotly competitive and for the winners, the payoffs are big," Harris said. "This is not an evil business. It's trucks and trains coming and going."
Virginia residents explain benefits, headaches of intermodal terminal
Norfolk Southern officials have cited VIP as a model example of a low-impact facility on its neighbors.
"It is not a dirty facility," said Joe Harris, spokesperson for the Virginia Port Authority. "You look around, there are no smokestacks. There is no byproduct that has to be disposed of."
"Our impact on the local community is very small," said James Davis, regional manager for Virginia International Terminals. "We operate during normal business hours. So when we are up and running and busiest is when people are at work. Within a couple of hundred yards, you can hear some of the activity, but after that you can't hear what's going on."
Davis points across the street for an example of how undisruptive the terminal is.
"Literally across the street from this facility, we have an 18 hole PGA level golf course and there is a housing community in there. I've played that course and you can't even tell this is here."
"I don't think the banks and developers that built it (the golf course) would invest over $35 million if they thought the inland port was going to have a negative impact on the development," said Warren County Administrator Doug Stanley.
Ben Weddle farms beef cattle a couple of miles from the VIP. He has lived at his home in Front Royal for 50 years and served as a supervisor for Warren County for several years. He agrees the port has not been a major environmental issue, but believes a portion of the credit goes to the county for having strong zoning ordinances in place.
"We have what I would consider a model ordinance to prevent light pollution. Our businesses must have light fixtures that are square with the lenses pointing straight down. That does a lot to prevent several miles of industrial sites from putting off an awful glow," said Weddle. "We can still see the stars at night."
Weddle said the county also placed height restrictions on warehouses, required landscaping and berms to hide what many consider to be eye sores, and required compensation for road improvements.
"I would also tell anyone in East Tennessee where they build a port to demand some help with your taxes. That can be another benefit that we took advantage of here," said Weddle.
Crowded Streets
Across the street at the golf course, mechanic Bradley Haden works to keep the grounds crew machinery in top shape. He agrees there is little problem from noise directly from the terminal. However, he cites several other issues that he feels have negatively impacted the area due to the industrial site's growth.
"The truck traffic," said Haden. "It seems to me it has doubled if not tripled. I've lived here 20 years."
Haden said the terminal itself may not be the main source of the trucks, but its presence was the primary factor in the traffic increase.
"Because of that inland port, that's why (businesses) decided to build these warehouses there and that's even added on to the truck traffic," said Haden. "That includes the back roads because a lot of these truckers try to dodge the scales (by avoiding the main interstates)."
Weddle said truck traffic can be a minor inconvenience, but is not a major problem.
"It's really not going to be much of an inconvenience to you. It may in fact be an economic advantage to you." Weddle added, "If you are a local business that could provide services to truckers, you might find that to be a big advantage."
Wrong side of the tracks
Both Weddle and Haden live in rural areas where they must cross the railroad tracks to reach the interstates and main businesses in town. Signs posted at railroad crossings highlight what they call the biggest headache from the terminal.
"I don't know how many times a train has blocked those intersections," said Haden.
Weddle added, "Especially when they have to back up and deliver loads to the inland port. Well sometimes there is as much as 10 to 15 minutes delay. Unusually, it might be a half hour delay."
Signs at the railroad crossings cite the specific Virginia Code that prohibits trains from blocking the crossing for more than five minutes. The signs include the phone number for the local sheriff's office and instruct drivers to report violations.
"It says five minutes. Within five minutes is a violation of the state of Virginia. It means nothing," said Haden. "There have been a few times it has been blocked at the south crossing. I would turn and go up 10 minutes, and the north one would be blocked also by the same train. It is very aggravating."
Weddle said a group of former neighbors were doctors employees of a local hospital who were frequently inconvenienced by the trains.
"In an emergency the trains were across the road for 20 minutes or so. They (Weddle's neighbors) got pretty upset and I guess the people waiting at the hospital might have been even more upset," said Weddle.
Haden said he has also encountered the issue in emergency situations.
"I was a volunteer firefighter and trains are blocking the tracks. You had a fire, a medical emergency, you know they can't just up and move the train in a minute or 30 seconds. But I do know for a fact that fire trucks and rescue personnel have been held up there," said Haden.
Haden said the intermodal terminal's presence placed added emphasis on the realtor's mantra concerning "location, location, location."
"My house, there's no other way to get there than to cross the tracks. If I would have know it would have been that bad, I probably would not have chosen to live on that side of the tracks." Haden continued, "If I was on this side of the tracks, it would be fine."
Susan Terpay with Norfolk Southern said it was too early to indicate exactly how the railroad will prevent similar problems should a terminal be built in New Market.
"At this point, we only have a conceptual drawing for the proposed intermodal terminal," said Terpay. "As part of the planning process, we would cooperate with local and state roadway authorities to ensure that residents and emergency vehicles have necessary access."
Reporter's Update: When discussing the issue of blocked roads in the interview with resident Bradley Haden, he indicated a second set of tracks that were recently installed near the port has invited additional train traffic and contributed to the problem of blocked roads.
In an email sent Thursday afternoon (Nov. 12) in response to this story, Warren County Administrator Doug Stanley said the issues with blocked roads were "a little misleading" since "most of the delays they talked about were before the double track was added this year."
"Before they would have to stop traffic north and south to allow the trains to decouple and drop and pick up cars at the port," Stanley wrote. "Now with the second line traffic can pass around the site."
Why New Market?
Much of the objection to Norfolk Southern's desired location for the intermodal terminal in New Market centers around the loss of productive farmland. With abandoned industrial sites a few miles away in each direction, residents who farm the fertile soil of New Market would like to see the existing brown spaces rehabilitated.
"These intermodal deals are supposed to benefit the environment, so it makes no sense to sacrifice green space to build an industrial site beside other vacant brown spaces," said New Market resident Harvey Young. "We are not against the concept of intermodal transportation or having it in this area. We simply think there are better alternatives that are very nearby."
Residents of New Market also expressed concerns about the close proximity of the proposed terminal and an elementary school.
Norfolk Southern officials have said they examined several sites, including the alternatives mentioned by New Market residents. However, the railroad insists New Market best fits the desired features of a terminal site due to the long and flat stretch of railroad tracks that extend through the area.
"One part of the criteria for a terminal is that it be undeveloped," said Terpay. "It is very expensive to reroute existing tracks or change the topography of an area by leveling it or building it up. For our criteria, you would need the acreage, that it would be flat, and you would have room for additional businesses to locate around it so you would have room for it to grow. The New Market site was the site that best suited that criteria. It is also very close to Interstate 40, Interstate 75, and I-81."
Young and other residents have said there are federal funds available for projects that rehabilitate existing brown space that could offset the additional expense.
Weddle said he can empathize with Jefferson County residents who want to rehabilitate existing brown spaces rather than building on fertile farm land.
"If I were in their situation, I would feel the same way. Companies do not generally make the beauty of a region they want to develop a top priority and use the excuse that something is too expensive. But those projects are financed over the course of 30 to 50 years, so the burden of spending that extra money is not usually as big as it seems," said Weddle.
Weddle speculated if there are nearby brown spaces, the intermodal site may have an interest in attracting businesses to fill vacant sites.
"I would imagine the commissioners there might want to do more than just a terminal and create a larger industrial area," said Weddle. "I'm just guessing, and without knowing much about how close those abandoned sites are, maybe they rule those out because they hope a business can locate there and be near the port instead of using the abandoned site for the actual terminal."
by Jim Matheny
Norfolk Southern is attempting to buy hundreds of acres in Jefferson County next to its existing rail line with the intention of building a new intermodal transport facility. The railroad says the train-to-truck cargo terminal will be a huge economic benefit to New Market and East Tennessee. Yet, some residents say the proposed location is an unnecessarily destructive choice that could irrevocably damage the area and their quality of life.
See the "Related Links" section of this page for a timeline of previous WBIR stories on the proposed intermodal facility.
Residents of Warren County, Virginia, heard the arguments in favor and against constructing an intermodal terminal more than two decades ago. In 1989, the Commonwealth of Virginia built an intermodal train-to-truck terminal known as the Virginia Inland Port (VIP) near the city of Front Royal.
Norfolk Southern has pointed to the VIP as the model of intermodal success it hopes to replicate physically and economically in Jefferson County. In a two-part series, 10News toured the Virginia Inland Port and spoke to residents who live near the facility to see exactly what could be on New Market's horizon.
Inside the Virginia Inland Port: The railroad's perspective
The rolling fertile hills of the Shenandoah Valley near Front Royal, VA, are incredibly similar to the terrain of New Market, TN. Both regions are also intersected by major rail lines that are near multiple interstates.
If Norfolk Southern has its way, the landscapes of New Market and Front Royal will share another feature in the form of an intermodal train-to-truck cargo terminal. The Commonwealth of Virginia built the Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal in 1989, where it is owned by the Virginia Port Authority and operated by Virginia International Terminals.
"When we built this in 1989, people said we were crazy," said Joe Harris, spokesperson for the Virginia Port Authority. "This inland port allows us to ship cargo by train to and from our sea ports that used to rely entirely on trucks. Shipping by rail is less expensive and it helps ease congestion on our highways between here and Norfolk from all of those trucks."
"In order to be competitive with truck traffic, we need to set up intermodal terminals," said Susan Terpay, spokesperson for Norfolk Southern during a tour of the Virginia Inland Port. "In terms of size and layout, at New Market this is what you would see. We chose the site at New Market because it best fit our criteria that would need the acreage, that it would be flat, and you have room for additional businesses to locate around it so there is room for it to grow."
The terminal is several hundred yards from the main road and settled in a natural depression. A large berm and trees hide much of the facility and its hundreds of large steel boxes.
"We wanted to minimize the visual impact of this terminal and remain below the tree line. We don't want people to drive by and think, 'Wow, what an ugly facility.' At most, we have two containers stacked on top of each other. The tallest things out here are for our straddle carriers," said Harris.
Straddle carriers are large vehicles that are used to stack and move the intermodal containers from the trains to truck chassis. Drivers maneuver the vehicles to straddle the train cars, lift the containers above the train, then move them to another portion of the terminal.
"The containers are steel boxes. At each of the eight corners of a container, there is a corner casting," said James Davis, supervisor with Virginia International Terminals. "Those corner castings have an oblong hole. The straddle carrier locks into those holes and pick them off the rail car."
Containers are then placed on truck chassis or stacked on the ground depending on when it is scheduled to depart the terminal.
"None of the cargo is packed or unpacked from the containers at the terminal," said Terpay. "The containers remain sealed and are loaded and unloaded by the shipper. There are no hazardous materials. These are items like electronics or other things you might find in any Target store."
The proposed New Market terminal would be just one stop along Norfolk Southern's "Crescent Corridor." Terpay said 95 percent of shipping between the southeast and the northeastern United States is by truck. The railroad hopes to shift that trend towards long-distance shipping via intermodal rail to small hubs, then utilize trucks for short-distance shipping to distribution centers and warehouses.
"This is also a cleaner alternative to trucks, which is why the governors of several states, including Tennessee, have applied for federal grants to help construct the Crescent Corridor," said Terpay.
Terpay points to the Virginia Inland Port as an example of the long-term economic benefits of an intermodal terminal.
"They are proven economic engines. They bring jobs, they bring additional businesses, and they bring tax revenue," said Terpay.
"It took us 20 years to get to this point," said Harris. "It was not overnight. It was around 1995 before this really started to take off. But as a result of the VIP, you have 25 companies that have located here as a result of this. The investment for the tri-county region has been in excess of $600 million and the employment of more than 7,000 people."
"It was another asset in our recruitment of businesses and why they need to relocate in our community," said Doug Stanley, administrator of Warren County, Virginia. "They have been a good neighbor."
Getting an intermodal terminal off the ground in New Market will be a much different task than what transpired in Virginia.
Stanley said the original owners of the land now occupied by the VIP approached the state and proposed building the terminal on their property. That contrasts sharply with the situation in New Market where the preferred location was chosen before approaching the owners of the property. Many of the property owners in Jefferson County object to the proposed site and have indicated they will not sell their land.
Another difference will be the public-private partnership proposed for New Market. The site in Jefferson County would be owned and operated by Norfolk Southern rather than the state. The Commonwealth of Virginia developed much more than an intermodal terminal in Front Royal.
"In essence, we acquired the land around the terminal and developed it into an industrial park. We installed the infrastructure like water and sewer, then marketed it to companies as a potential site for their distribution centers," said Stanley.
Despite these differences, Harris believes over time the site in New Market would have a lot more in common with Front Royal than not.
"There are a lot of jobs tied to moving these boxes and what is inside them. It's hotly competitive and for the winners, the payoffs are big," Harris said. "This is not an evil business. It's trucks and trains coming and going."
Virginia residents explain benefits, headaches of intermodal terminal
Norfolk Southern officials have cited VIP as a model example of a low-impact facility on its neighbors.
"It is not a dirty facility," said Joe Harris, spokesperson for the Virginia Port Authority. "You look around, there are no smokestacks. There is no byproduct that has to be disposed of."
"Our impact on the local community is very small," said James Davis, regional manager for Virginia International Terminals. "We operate during normal business hours. So when we are up and running and busiest is when people are at work. Within a couple of hundred yards, you can hear some of the activity, but after that you can't hear what's going on."
Davis points across the street for an example of how undisruptive the terminal is.
"Literally across the street from this facility, we have an 18 hole PGA level golf course and there is a housing community in there. I've played that course and you can't even tell this is here."
"I don't think the banks and developers that built it (the golf course) would invest over $35 million if they thought the inland port was going to have a negative impact on the development," said Warren County Administrator Doug Stanley.
Ben Weddle farms beef cattle a couple of miles from the VIP. He has lived at his home in Front Royal for 50 years and served as a supervisor for Warren County for several years. He agrees the port has not been a major environmental issue, but believes a portion of the credit goes to the county for having strong zoning ordinances in place.
"We have what I would consider a model ordinance to prevent light pollution. Our businesses must have light fixtures that are square with the lenses pointing straight down. That does a lot to prevent several miles of industrial sites from putting off an awful glow," said Weddle. "We can still see the stars at night."
Weddle said the county also placed height restrictions on warehouses, required landscaping and berms to hide what many consider to be eye sores, and required compensation for road improvements.
"I would also tell anyone in East Tennessee where they build a port to demand some help with your taxes. That can be another benefit that we took advantage of here," said Weddle.
Crowded Streets
Across the street at the golf course, mechanic Bradley Haden works to keep the grounds crew machinery in top shape. He agrees there is little problem from noise directly from the terminal. However, he cites several other issues that he feels have negatively impacted the area due to the industrial site's growth.
"The truck traffic," said Haden. "It seems to me it has doubled if not tripled. I've lived here 20 years."
Haden said the terminal itself may not be the main source of the trucks, but its presence was the primary factor in the traffic increase.
"Because of that inland port, that's why (businesses) decided to build these warehouses there and that's even added on to the truck traffic," said Haden. "That includes the back roads because a lot of these truckers try to dodge the scales (by avoiding the main interstates)."
Weddle said truck traffic can be a minor inconvenience, but is not a major problem.
"It's really not going to be much of an inconvenience to you. It may in fact be an economic advantage to you." Weddle added, "If you are a local business that could provide services to truckers, you might find that to be a big advantage."
Wrong side of the tracks
Both Weddle and Haden live in rural areas where they must cross the railroad tracks to reach the interstates and main businesses in town. Signs posted at railroad crossings highlight what they call the biggest headache from the terminal.
"I don't know how many times a train has blocked those intersections," said Haden.
Weddle added, "Especially when they have to back up and deliver loads to the inland port. Well sometimes there is as much as 10 to 15 minutes delay. Unusually, it might be a half hour delay."
Signs at the railroad crossings cite the specific Virginia Code that prohibits trains from blocking the crossing for more than five minutes. The signs include the phone number for the local sheriff's office and instruct drivers to report violations.
"It says five minutes. Within five minutes is a violation of the state of Virginia. It means nothing," said Haden. "There have been a few times it has been blocked at the south crossing. I would turn and go up 10 minutes, and the north one would be blocked also by the same train. It is very aggravating."
Weddle said a group of former neighbors were doctors employees of a local hospital who were frequently inconvenienced by the trains.
"In an emergency the trains were across the road for 20 minutes or so. They (Weddle's neighbors) got pretty upset and I guess the people waiting at the hospital might have been even more upset," said Weddle.
Haden said he has also encountered the issue in emergency situations.
"I was a volunteer firefighter and trains are blocking the tracks. You had a fire, a medical emergency, you know they can't just up and move the train in a minute or 30 seconds. But I do know for a fact that fire trucks and rescue personnel have been held up there," said Haden.
Haden said the intermodal terminal's presence placed added emphasis on the realtor's mantra concerning "location, location, location."
"My house, there's no other way to get there than to cross the tracks. If I would have know it would have been that bad, I probably would not have chosen to live on that side of the tracks." Haden continued, "If I was on this side of the tracks, it would be fine."
Susan Terpay with Norfolk Southern said it was too early to indicate exactly how the railroad will prevent similar problems should a terminal be built in New Market.
"At this point, we only have a conceptual drawing for the proposed intermodal terminal," said Terpay. "As part of the planning process, we would cooperate with local and state roadway authorities to ensure that residents and emergency vehicles have necessary access."
Reporter's Update: When discussing the issue of blocked roads in the interview with resident Bradley Haden, he indicated a second set of tracks that were recently installed near the port has invited additional train traffic and contributed to the problem of blocked roads.
In an email sent Thursday afternoon (Nov. 12) in response to this story, Warren County Administrator Doug Stanley said the issues with blocked roads were "a little misleading" since "most of the delays they talked about were before the double track was added this year."
"Before they would have to stop traffic north and south to allow the trains to decouple and drop and pick up cars at the port," Stanley wrote. "Now with the second line traffic can pass around the site."
Why New Market?
Much of the objection to Norfolk Southern's desired location for the intermodal terminal in New Market centers around the loss of productive farmland. With abandoned industrial sites a few miles away in each direction, residents who farm the fertile soil of New Market would like to see the existing brown spaces rehabilitated.
"These intermodal deals are supposed to benefit the environment, so it makes no sense to sacrifice green space to build an industrial site beside other vacant brown spaces," said New Market resident Harvey Young. "We are not against the concept of intermodal transportation or having it in this area. We simply think there are better alternatives that are very nearby."
Residents of New Market also expressed concerns about the close proximity of the proposed terminal and an elementary school.
Norfolk Southern officials have said they examined several sites, including the alternatives mentioned by New Market residents. However, the railroad insists New Market best fits the desired features of a terminal site due to the long and flat stretch of railroad tracks that extend through the area.
"One part of the criteria for a terminal is that it be undeveloped," said Terpay. "It is very expensive to reroute existing tracks or change the topography of an area by leveling it or building it up. For our criteria, you would need the acreage, that it would be flat, and you would have room for additional businesses to locate around it so you would have room for it to grow. The New Market site was the site that best suited that criteria. It is also very close to Interstate 40, Interstate 75, and I-81."
Young and other residents have said there are federal funds available for projects that rehabilitate existing brown space that could offset the additional expense.
Weddle said he can empathize with Jefferson County residents who want to rehabilitate existing brown spaces rather than building on fertile farm land.
"If I were in their situation, I would feel the same way. Companies do not generally make the beauty of a region they want to develop a top priority and use the excuse that something is too expensive. But those projects are financed over the course of 30 to 50 years, so the burden of spending that extra money is not usually as big as it seems," said Weddle.
Weddle speculated if there are nearby brown spaces, the intermodal site may have an interest in attracting businesses to fill vacant sites.
"I would imagine the commissioners there might want to do more than just a terminal and create a larger industrial area," said Weddle. "I'm just guessing, and without knowing much about how close those abandoned sites are, maybe they rule those out because they hope a business can locate there and be near the port instead of using the abandoned site for the actual terminal."