Valparaiso may be getting a train and trucking intermodal transfer on the city’s southeast side.
Representatives from Transpoint Intermodal LLC, of Indianapolis, brought in plans the Valparaiso Site Review Committee meeting Tuesday to revamp the old BBC Electric, a contractor building at 54 North County Road 400 East.
Plans showed a two-phase operation that would eventually run 24 hours a day, officials said.
The site is at the C, F & E Railroad tracks that run parallel to U.S. 30, and Transpoint would create two spurs in the first phase so trains could leave the main tracks and unload and load items.
The second phase would only see two more spurs off the main tracks.
Designer Randy Smith of GAI Consultants said shipments transferred between truck and train mostly will be food from the Midwest for shipping overseas and other dry goods, such as electronics, being shipped here.
After arriving here, much of the shipments would go west by truck, officials said,
There’ll be no chemicals or liquids, he told the city officials.
The trains will travel between Porter County and Fort Wayne, where on June 28, Transpoint Intermodal broke ground on a $13.5 million project that’ll bring up to 64 new jobs by the end of 2019, according to the City of Fort Wayne website.
The company’s representatives Tuesday didn’t know how many jobs this would bring to Valparaiso or the pay range.
However, Smith said there’d be three shifts of six workers in Valparaiso when it gets up to 24-hour operations.
He said the site should be operational next year, but it won’t be 24 hours at first.
Smith couldn’t say how many trucks would be there, but he said the Indiana Department of Transportation didn’t see a need for a traffic signal at County Road 400 East and U.S. 30 based on company projections, just a deceleration lane for turns onto County Road 400.
Attorney Todd Leeth said that the company will need to go before the Board of Zoning Appeals this fall to get variances from ordinances that will allow the intermodal to “store” containers outside for short periods, have higher than allowed light poles and allow fence variations that’d interfere with shipping processes.
The only building work will be revamping the existing building and adding asphalt for trucks and goods.
James D. Wolf Jr. is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.