On July 21, at Deerfield, Massachusetts, Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Interim Secretary of Transportation Phillip Eng, State Senator Jo Comerford, MassDOT Rail and Transit Administrator Meredith Slesinger, and local officials cut a ribbon to celebrate recent improvements completed at the East Deerfield Rail Yard. The work adds a facility to transfer goods from train to truck for “last mile” connections, improving access to intermodal rail services in the region and opening new economic opportunities.
Located along the I-91 Corridor and the Route 2 Corridor, the East Deerfield Rail Yard has been primarily used to switch train cars between locomotives along their respective journeys and as a facility for the maintenance of the Knowledge Corridor which carries state-funded Amtrak services, including the Vermonter and Valley Flyer.
The East Deerfield Rail Yard Intermodal Project includes the construction of new track infrastructure to enable loading and unloading of intermodal containers from trains within the rail yard, and state-of-good-repair improvements to existing track infrastructure. Eight existing yard tracks were upgraded to support the project — four were upgraded by replacing existing rail, ties, and turnouts with new material that permits intermodal loading and unloading, and four were rehabilitated to support the receipt and delivery of railcars to nearby intermodal freight customers and to serve as staging tracks for the new intermodal transfer facility.
Additionally, a portion of East Deerfield Yard was repurposed from a material and vehicle storage area to provide truck access for loading and unloading intermodal containers from rail cars. The improvements include minor site grading and compacting of the roadway base using dense graded crushed stone as an alternative to paving. The established route within the intermodal facility will consolidate use of the on-site at-grade crossings and the site entrance along McClelland Farm Road.
The railyard improvements were funded through an 80/20 federal-to-state split, with a total project cost of $5.6 million.
-via Press Release
