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Sunday, Jul. 12, 1998
Port's new rail track near completionz
Addition will improve efficiency of bulk terminal
By GLASTON FORD
Staff WriterThe Port of Corpus Christi Authority is close to fulfilling a 7-year-old goal that will improve its ability to handle bulk products, an important growth area for the port.
Work on a $3.1 million loop rail track at the port's bulk terminal is about 60 percent complete and is scheduled for completion in mid-October, said Dave Michaelsen, a senior project engineer with the port. About 95 percent of the base work is complete and about 2,500 feet of track are in place.
The 2.8-mile loop rail track will double the size of the bulk terminal, from 60 acres to 120 acres, said Jerry Cotter, director of operations for the port. It creates room for growth and will improve the efficiency of the terminal, he said. Now the port has only a dead-end spur serving the terminal.
The expansions also will allow the port to go after other cargoes, such as U.S. coal that is being exported, said John LaRue, executive director of the port.
The improvements are coming at a time when the terminal is the busiest it has ever been, port officials say.
``This is the best year we've ever had so far,'' said Joe Giannina, manager of the Bulk Terminal.
Products such as coal bound for power plants in Texas, metallurgical coke bound for steel mills in Mexico, and petroleum coke, a byproduct of refining, have kept terminal operators busy this year, Cotter said.
The terminal processed 1.35 million tons of dry bulk in the first six months of 1998, compared with 1.76 million tons in all of 1997.
The terminal started the year with an unusually high amount of petroleum coke in storage, Giannina said. And shipping that product has increased this year's tonnage figures.
But the terminal also has received business as a result of Union Pacific Railroad's service problems.
Central Power and Light Co. and City Public Service in San Antonio have shipped coal through the port's Bulk Terminal to supplement their rail shipments from Wyoming's Powder River Basin, he said.
The coal is unloaded from ships at the bulk terminal and then shipped by truck to its destination.
``I'm one of the few people who is a fan of the Union Pacific Railroad,'' Giannina said.
As he spoke, terminal operators were loading a vessel with about 60,000 tons of petroleum coke. The product is loaded on a conveyor system next to a storage pad -- a large, open-air storage facility. Then it is carried at the rate of 1,400 tons per hour up an automated loading device called a radial arm loader and dumped into a holding bin in the ship's hull.
Earlier in the week, construction crews were preparing to pour the 130 yards of concrete needed for a rail scale that will be included in the track.
Although the lack of rain has been good for construction, the heat has slowed work down, said Marcus Stiles, a foreman with Bay Ltd., which is building the loop rail track. The problem, he said, is that ``people don't want to work in the heat.''
The port first identified the loop rail track as a goal in 1991 as part of its bulk terminal expansion master plan. In December 1997, the port awarded the contract for construction of the loop rail track and in March 1998 approved a $300,000 rail scale as an addition to the contract.
The new scale, called a coupled-in-motion scale, will allow several rail cars to be weighed consecutively as they drive over the scale, according to port reports. The port has one scale, which is 35 years old and uses 19th century technology, Port Commissioner Richard Bowers has said. Each rail car has to be uncoupled from the rest of the train and weighed independently.
Part of the loop rail track is being built on former dredge material placement sites, soft ground that requires some extra construction methods, Michaelsen said.
For example, layers of woven plastic called geogride have been placed between layers of dirt to help stabilize the base of the tracks, he said. And because the soil is expected to settle, construction crews will reassess the track after it has been in use for six months.
Although the bulk terminal represents a small percentage of the port's total tonnage, 3.13 percent so far this year, it accounts for 21.4 percent of the port's revenues through June.
The rail loop is another example of the port's success at getting federal assistance for infrastructure improvements. The loop rail is being built with a $2.5 million Economic Development Assistance grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The grant was announced by U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz's office in October 1996.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web