Report: BNSF Moves Ahead on Arizona Intermodal Project
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
BNSF is advancing a planned 4,000-acre intermodal and industrial center project in Surprise, Ariz., following the City Council’s approval on March 7.
According to a Phoenix Business Journal report, the Council voted to change the city’s general plan to allow for industrial development. BNSF had applied in 2022 and is now slated “to submit applications to rezone and annex the massive property into Surprise,” which is located in the northwest corner of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Detailed development plans as well as a traffic impact analysis will be part of the application process.
The railroad, “which had original plans to build an intermodal facility in the same area in the 2000s, wants to build its regional rail hub east of 235th Avenue between U.S. Highway 60 and State Route 74, which connects to Interstate 17 by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s new factory in north Phoenix,” according to the Journal. BNSF previously said “the project could see 30 million-plus square feet of industrial development and estimated that its facility will produce 11,500 construction jobs and represent $1.5 billion in one-time construction economic impacts,” the Journal reported.
BNSF runs from Flagstaff to Phoenix, where it already operates an intermodal facility.
