Quincy commissioners break ground for intermodal

Project hoped to bring economic diversity to town, county

The Quincy intermodal system is finally about to get off the ground.

That's because it finally broke ground.

Port of Quincy commissioners met Monday morning for the ceremony in which the project, which began in 2001, saw its first golden shovel enter the earth.

"This is a culmination of a tremendous amount of effort from a huge amount of people," said Port commissioner Curt Morris. "The day that we've been waiting for for years is finally here. We're out moving dirt. Now things will start happening."

"We started this project back in 2001, and we've had our frustrations along the way," said Port commissioner Brian Kuest. " … We've had the commitments, it's just getting those commitments in place so we can get the funding. And our design has changed; the scope of the work is greater than what we anticipated would happen at this point in time. That's beneficial to us; it's beneficial to (operator) Northwest Container and it just helps us move this project along at a faster pace."

Kuest said Tommer Construction has been awarded the bid to do the work on the project.

The entities committed to funding the project — federal, state and United States Department of Agriculture — have all had different sets of criteria that has needed to be followed in order to get everything organized, he said.

The intermodal system was originally planned to be a way to relieve strain on the roadways between the Columbia Basin and sea ports, but the scope expanded to develop inland area ports to receive shipments from developed areas, and disperse them from the inland, Port commissioner Patric Connelly told the Columbia Basin Herald in February.

Now that ground has been broken, Kuest said that the infrastructure is being developed with roads and electricity. Morris said the second phase will involve connecting railways.

Kuest said that additional funding has become available faster than the Port commissioners had planned.

"We were thinking that it was going to come at a later date, but it's actually come quicker so that between USDA money, state money and federal money, we can do a lot more infrastructure and rail development out there than what we had initially planned," he said. "We were basically going to make that thing operable with $2 million of USDA money. Now we have about $5.5 million that is available, so we've had to re-up the engineering specs, the design specs, so that we can utilize that and show each funding source how we're going to appropriate their money."

In the short haul, Kuest said commissioners are hoping that the intermodal will bring 15 new jobs to move containers from the Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma. The long haul is to bring in warehousing distribution centers, he said.

Gary Cardwell is chief executive officer of Northwest Container Services, Inc., which will be the terminal operator of the facility. Cardwell said that it will promote international imports and exports, and try to generate domestic business.

"(We're) trying to see what we can do about helping bring large distribution centers into Quincy that makes the whole system work," he said. "I think, long term, it's going to be a big project for Quincy, Grant County and the state of Washington."

Cardwell said that no company has been specifically talked to yet, but the desire is for big box companies along the lines of Lowe's and Michaels.

Kuest said that the Port of Quincy, intermodal operator Northwest Container and Port of Pasco have entered into a joint venture to have Washington State University do a study on bringing warehousing facilities and distribution centers into the Quincy market.

"We get that to happen and it's not going to be just westbound traffic, Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma," Kuest said. "Then that whole east market opens up."

Morris said he hoped that the activity on the intermodal site and getting the program underway will lead to communication from other industries that may want to have a site in the industrial park.

Morris declined to comment on any companies that have expressed interest in the park other than Northwest Container.

"Other than that, we've had ongoing dialogue with different companies and it will be interesting to see," he said. "This is a long range plan; it's nothing that's going to be done in a couple years."

Morris estimated that the facility will be operational in September or October.

"It is definitely our hope that it will increase new businesses coming to town," he said. "While they may be ag-related, they don't necessarily need to be. It is hoped that it will give a stimulus to the economic viability of Quincy and of Grant County."

Morris said that there are a number of plans and opportunities to work with the Port of Moses Lake to possibly have the park become a customs clearing area for incoming cargo from the west side and make it more feasible for Quincy farmers to ship agricultural products west.

"It will be an on-going thing; it's a fluid program," he said. "Once we're able to announce some of the different companies that have been contacting us, I think it will be a surprise and a benefit to the whole county."

"It's four years of work and it's nice to have it started; it's exciting," Connelly said. "It will help diversify (the area), and bring in other stuff, making it other than agriculturally dependent, hopefully, and just new opportunities for everyone around — businesses, jobs and other things. It's going to be a help."