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The economics of rail transportation recently helped convince a bottle manufacturer to build its first new plant in 23 years.

To produce bottles for an Anheuser-Busch Cos. plant in Fort Collins, Colo., Owens-Illinois Inc. officials opted to set up shop in nearby Windsor along the Great Western Railway of Colorado, a subsidiary of OmniTRAX Inc. Owens-Illinois selected the Windsor site for several reasons, including the cost of rail-shipping raw materials to the new facility, and shipping finished bottles to the Anheuser-Busch plant, according to a prepared statement.

"Our team did a fantastic job of finding the site, rezoning it, and resolving the many obstacles that arose in preparing the site for Owens-Illinois," said OmniTRAX President Dwight Johnson. "By locating the plant in the Windsor area, Owens-Illinois has the opportunity for optimum pricing of transportation of its raw materials because of our ability to connect to both the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroads."

The plant will employ 150 people, said Colorado Gov. Bill Owens.

An affiliate of The Broe Cos., Denver-based OmniTRAX owns and operates railroads in six states and three Canadian provinces.