Union Pacific opens new Joliet Intermodal Terminal

With an annual capacity of 500,000 ocean-going containers, Union Pacific’s new Joliet Intermodal Terminal will increase the railroad’s international and domestic container capacity and improve rail traffic efficiencies in Chicago, the nation’s largest rail centre.

The new Joliet Intermodal Terminal (JIT) is located just southwest of Chicago in Joliet, Illinois. Focused on international traffic moving to and from the West Coast, this facility will expand Union Pacific’s current central and western Chicago coverage to include the rapidly growing southwest Chicago area.

JIT will provide access to all major traffic lanes, and is situated to take advantage of UP’s fastest East/West service lane. In addition, its proximity to Interstates 55 and 80 will benefit customers by reducing dray costs.

The new facility features:

• 550 acres, with additional acreage for future expansion
• 500,000+ annual lift capacity for intermodal containers
• Ten-lane Automated Gate System (AGS) entrance
• 24/7 operations
• Four working tracks, six support tracks and six switching tracks
• Four 8,000 ft tracks with capacity to handle the loading or unloading of 107 intermodal double-stack rail cars
• Six 8,000 ft tracks to enable train crews to sort rail cars by destination
• An additional six tracks to stage rail cars prior to unloading or loading
• Four straddle cranes and two rubber-tired mobile "packers" that lift trailers and containers on and off rail cars
• The cranes are equipped with GPS technology, increasing loading and unloading efficiencies.
• More than 3,400 "staging" or parking places for trailers and containers
• An advanced Yard System that coordinates all movement of rail cars, trucks, trailers and containers at the facility
• AGS Gate technology to reduce truck processing time from five minutes to 30 – 90 seconds
• Bio-metrics and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology

CIC-Joliet, a US$2 billion private investment, is an extension of CenterPoint’s 2,500-acre integrated logistics centre in Elwood, located just two miles south, the redevelopment of the US Army’s former Joliet Arsenal.

Total investment in CIC-Elwood is projected to be US$1 billion at full build-out. CenterPoint has developed almost 9 million sq.ft of industrial facilities within CIC-Elwood within six years as a result of customer demand for warehouse/distribution facilities located adjacent to rail. Combined, CenterPoint’s 6,000 acres within CIC-Elwood and CIC-Joliet create the largest master-planned integrated logistics centre in North America.

CenterPoint will be investing more than US$200 million in new infrastructure, including roads, bridges and utilities. Of the 3,900 total acres, 975 acres are zoned for rail and intermodal terminal development; 1,900 acres are available for up to 20 million ssq.ft of industrial facilities (warehouse, distribution, manufacturing, cross-dock, and transloading); and 400 acres can accommodate container/trailer and equipment management facilities. The remaining 625 acres have been reserved for stormwater and conservation.