Kansas DOT narrows list of sites for future transload center

Seven finalist locations have been chosen for the site of a proposed transload center, the Kansas Department of Transportation (KSDOT) announced on Monday.

The KSDOT/Kansas Turnpike Transload Facility site analysis team selected the finalists from 111 proposals submitted for consideration. Some communities that responded to the request submitted multiple sites.

The finalist sites are located in Abilene, Concordia, El Dorado, Garden City, Great Bend, Norton and an industrial park south of Parsons. The selection committee will hear presentations from the finalists later this month, with a site to be chosen in late August.

"A transload facility has the potential to not only lower shipping costs, it is a job creator and provides economic development opportunities for the export of Kansas products,” said Mike King, secretary of transportation director of the Kansas Turnpike Authority, in a press release.

The facility will be used to transload goods from truck to rail and from rail to truck. The seven finalist sites are served either by BNSF Railway Co., Union Pacific Railroad, Genesee & Wyoming Inc.'s Kyle Railroad or Watco Cos. LLC's Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad, said KSDOT Freight and Rail Program Manager John Maddox in an email.