Watco completes expansion, upgrades at Texas terminal

Watco yesterday announced the completion of a $6.7 million expansion and improvement project at its rail, storage and transloading facility near Refugio, Texas.

The Refugio Transload Terminal has now gained heightened security and increased rail-car capacity, with a 600-car storage-in-transit (SIT) yard, Watco officials said in a press release. The project involved adding 20,000 linear feet of track and more than 12,000 feet of perimeter fencing featuring state-of-the-art security equipment, including 24/7 camera surveillance capabilities to monitor and protect the terminal's cars and commodities.

The 222-acre terminal is served by BNSF Railway Co. and Union Pacific Railroad. It features eight 2,000-ton concrete silos and on-site conveyer systems for handling bulk commodities. The SIT yard can handle oil, gas and chemical cars, the transloading of wind energy components, sand and other aggregates, and steel and agricultural products.

“We’re helping our customers optimize the space at their facilities for producing product, and we take away the burden of managing loaded and empty rail-car storage,” said Marc Massoglia, Watco’s senior vice president of terminals and ports.