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Yesterday, the Port of Quincy, Wash., announced that more than 30 state and federal legislators, as well as local businesses, organizations and communities, recently sent letters to the U.S. Department of Transportation expressing support for the port’s $30 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery III (TIGER III) grant application. The port is seeking the federal funding to expand an intermodal terminal near a BNSF Railway Co. mainline and improve other infrastructure.

The project calls for extending a siding from the intermodal terminal two miles to the east, establishing a gravel surface to accommodate the placement of more containers, and purchasing additional containers and equipment for the port and terminal. The project is necessary because business at the port and terminal has increased dramatically the past couple of years, port officials said in a prepared statement.

“From the time when the Pacific Northwest-Chicagoland Express Cold Train Intermodal Service was launched in partnership with the port at the intermodal terminal in April of 2010, this refrigerated intermodal container rail and distribution service has grown rapidly in popularity with produce and perishable shippers in the Pacific Northwest [and] Midwest,” they said. “The number of eastbound shipments of produce on the Cold Train have risen several hundred percent since early 2010 and continue to climb, while the volume of westbound shipments of cargo on the Cold Train from Chicago to Washington state have also increased by several hundred percent since the beginning of 2010.”

The TIGER III grant supporters include U.S. Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).