Shipping firm sets sights on 3 sites.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

A Portland company is preparing to build an intermodal shipping center in the Eugene area designed to get freight off Interstate 5 and onto trains moving between Eugene and Portland.

Northwest Container Services Inc. is looking for a 15- to 25-acre site next to rails in Eugene, Springfield or Junction City for the new facility, which should be operating by the end of the 2005, said Gary Cardwell, the company's divisional vice president.

The company has narrowed its choices down to about three sites, and is evaluating whether to build a new facility or remodel an existing building.

The center would employ three or four workers to start, growing to 10 to 15 over time, Cardwell said. The shipping center could, in turn, spur growth in distribution-center and trucking jobs, he said.

Getting freight off trucks and onto rail cars saves wear and tear on the state's highways, reduces pollution and provides an economic boost, Cardwell said.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, liked the idea, which is why he tucked $2.5 million into a $284 billion, six-year transportation bill passed last week by the U.S. House of Representatives. The money would be used for infrastructure development, equipment purchases and site improvements.

The funding package now awaits action in the Senate, then a conference committee before a final vote by both chambers, DeFazio spokeswoman Kristie Greco said.

Northwest Container Services specializes in moving freight by rail to destinations too close to each other - within 600 miles - to interest the major railroads such as Union Pacific and Burlington Northern. The company contracts with the big railroads to hook and haul its cars.

The Lane County site is part of a larger company strategy in which inland, regional intermodal centers would take pressure off congested, urban shipping centers such as the Port of Portland.

The freight coming out of West Coast ports is expected to double in the next 15 years, Cardwell said, so finding ways to relieve congestion around the ports is critical.

Right now, nearly half the trucks traveling on I-5 with international containers are empty, Cardwell said. For example, a truck filled with imported goods travels to a big-box store in Eugene, unloads its cargo and heads back to Portland with an empty container.

Meanwhile, an exporter in Eugene with a load of hay or grass seed bound for Asia has to pay to have an empty container trucked down here, then back up again with a full load.

The Eugene facility would be one of five inland intermodal centers in the Northwest. The company is about to start construction on another such center in Quincy, Wash., and also is planning to build at the Port of Morrow in Boardman. Sites in Lewiston and Pasco plan to use the same strategy by filling otherwise empty containers carried on Columbia River barges, Cardwell said.

In California, Northwest Container is a partner in a project with the Port of Oakland and the city of Schafter, about 250 miles east of Oakland, to build an intermodal distribution center. Goods would move by rail from the inland city to the Port of Oakland, eliminating thousands of truck trips into the congested Bay Area city.

The city of Eugene is very interested in the Northwest Container project because of the economic development potential, said Mike Sullivan, the city's community development manager.