CN to start serving Alberta frac sand terminal in November

CN on Wednesday announced plans to begin serving a new state-of-the-art frac sand terminal north of Grande Prairie, Alberta, in November.

The new 20-acre facility is being built by Di-Corp. and will feature three tracks designed to hold 44 rail cars for unloading. The terminal is projected to produce 550,000 tons of frac sand annually.

The facility will help accommodate existing and expected growth in frac sand demand in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, said Trevor Derksen, Di-Corp's vice president of marketing, in a press release.

The railroad will help Di-Corp move more frac sand to energy markets via the terminal, said Doug MacDonald, CN's vice president of industrial products.

"The new transloading terminal will create additional offloading and storage capacity at destination and also give our origin frac sand producers in the U.S. Midwest, Manitoba and elsewhere greater supply chain efficiencies and new market opportunities," he said.