More than 3 miles of double railroad tracks are completed near Saginaw in northwest Tarrant County — part of a BNSF Railway project to increase capacity in North Texas.
The Fort Worth-based railroad company is planning to add about 2 more miles of double tracks in the busy rail corridor as millions of dollars in Alliance area infrastructure improvements are underway or planned to boost the booming inland port that connects with air, rail and ground transportation.
BNSF said the additional track capacity opens more growth opportunities for railroad customers across an important section of the company’s rail network.
“Once the entire project is complete — only about 2 miles to go — we will have two main tracks all the way from Lambert, just north of Alliance, down to and across Tower 55 near downtown (Fort Worth), one of the busiest rail intersections in the country,” Kendall Kirkham Sloan, a BNSF spokesperson, said.
BNSF’s project will complement other components of infrastructure improvements near Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport following an $80 million federal grant announced in late October.
Hillwood, led by chairman Ross Perot Jr., was awarded the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant to bolster the U.S. supply chain in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation, the cities of Fort Worth and Haslet, and the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
The planned Smart Port at AllianceTexas, a $262 million public-private partnership that includes a, 27,000-acre mixed-use development, will connect with the AllianceTexas Inland Port, a major southwest U.S. supply chain hub, with other Texas rail and ground freight corridors. Private sector investment will be about $96 million.
“AllianceTexas is poised to redefine what it means to be a modern logistics hub,” Perot said in October. “By integrating automation and forward-looking technologies through this grant, we will not only strengthen the national supply chain but also set a global benchmark for resilience and efficiency in port operations.”
BNSF’s Alliance Intermodal Facility, which has about 4.2 million trucks going in and out each year, will include a new 32-acre container lot with electric drayage service — the use of electric vehicles to transport goods to more than 14 million square feet of next-generation warehouse space nearby.
A planned smart-connected bridge, which will aid in vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, will connect the BNSF facility to State Highway 170 and move trucks off busy Interstate 35W in northern Tarrant and southern Denton counties. The number of trucks traveling in and out of the intermodal facility is expected to reach more than 8 million annually by 2035.
Long-term telecommunications infrastructure will support expanded semi- and fully autonomous technology and vehicles while boosting public/private 5G network growth.
The infrastructure will aid a new TruckPort for electric vehicle freight operations that will include charging units for short- and long-haul operations. A connected Texas freight corridor will incorporate technology for autonomous trucks throughout the 865-mile Texas Triangle area that links North Texas, Austin-San Antonio and Houston areas.
Alliance also plans to build an independent, renewable microgrid to mitigate Texas energy spikes and unforeseen energy impacts, such as the 2021 Texas winter storm that left millions without electricity for days.
In December, Regional Transportation Council leaders celebrated those in the private and public sectors that aided in securing the $80 million Alliance grant. The council is an independent body made up of North Texas leaders focused on transportation policy.
“By leveraging technology to improve supply chain resilience, this project allows Dallas-Fort Worth to serve as a transformative model for the efficient movement of goods to market,” Denton County Judge Andy Eads said. “I would like to thank Tarrant County Commissioner Gary Fickes, my colleague on the RTC, as well as all dedicated leaders of the RTC and the legislative community from across Dallas-Fort Worth, for recognizing the importance of this project to the long-term economic outlook of the region, state and nation.”
Jeff Neal, transportation senior projects manager for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said the project was dear to his heart and he was glad that an award was secured.
“This has been to add a direct connector to the facility … allowing for direct connection into planned technology-supported lanes that will, with vehicle-to-infrastructure technology, cameras and a lot of other equipment, help facilitate a move toward bringing connected and automated vehicles from intermodal centers directly into the public highway realm,” Neal said.
The combination of technology and transportation will mean a more efficient inland port and create a seamless platform for connecting the region, Neal said.
“I’m very excited to get these projects not just through the planning and the work that we’ve done in our applications but now through implementation,” he added.
The Alliance project will also support the site’s future intermodal growth, including planned services to Mexico.
The Texas comptroller’s office estimates that the Alliance Global Logistics Hub operation contributed $12.2 billion to the Texas economy and supported 81,300 jobs in 2018.
Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
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