By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
In 2010, Union Pacific Railroad opened Global IV, a $370 million intermodal terminal near Chicago in Joliet, Illinois. The facility serves as a vital hub for domestic and international intermodal shipments heading to or coming from central and western Chicago.
Formally known as Joliet Intermodal Terminal Global IV, the 785-acre hub is located near the nation’s largest rail center and third-largest warehouse/distribution market. Distribution center capacity in Joliet has increased to more than 100 million square feet over the past several years. Global IV also benefits from multiple interstate access to nearby markets in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio; Detroit; Indianapolis; and Louisville, Kentucky.
Now, UP is expanding Global IV’s capabilities and broadening the facility’s reach by establishing a state-of-the-art grain transload facility. The aim: to attract export grain traffic from Midwest agricultural producers and processors by helping to reduce their supply-chain costs.
The transload facility will expand connection opportunities for both empty containers and the Class I’s extensive West Coast port terminal network, UP officials say. To open in the fourth quarter, the facility is designed to process 50,000 containers annually.
Joliet is an ideal location because the transload facility will be located at the intersection of both empty international containers and agricultural production, said UP spokesperson Robynn Tysver in an email.
“Empty international boxes are already available and do not have to be repositioned to another location at a cost to the supply chain,” she said. “In addition, by being on-site at Global IV, we are reducing the number of truck movements in the Joliet area, which will produce efficiencies.”
Ag producers’ and ocean carriers’ desire for containerized grain exports drove the project’s development, said Tysver. The transload facility will be supported by inbound truck shipments of ag products, so it requires no additional track. Ag products trucked to Global IV will be transloaded into marine containers for shipment by rail to West Coast ports, then loaded onto ocean carriers and shipped to overseas markets.
A contractor that UP declined to identify is constructing the facility. It will be managed by JCT, a 50/50 joint venture between Consolidated Grain and Barge Co. and Gavilon Grain LLC.
Global IV — which can process 500,000 containers per year — is the first U.S. intermodal terminal to be powered entirely by green energy, said UP spokesperson Robynn Tysver.Credit: Union Pacific RailroadIn addition to grain, the facility will be used to transload dry distiller grains with solubles — a co-product of the ethanol manufacturing process — oilseeds and other grain products.
Although the facility will not directly impact Global IV's intermodal capabilities, UP continues to tap technologies and increase resources to maximize and expand the terminal’s capacity, Tysver said. For example, Global IV — which can process 500,000 containers per year — is the first U.S. intermodal terminal to be powered entirely by green energy. The facility’s power is supplied by 273 solar panels and off-site wind technology.
In addition, Global IV features GPS-guided cranes, a biometric driver check-in system, and a 10-lane automated entrance and exit gate system.
UP continues to evaluate its network and marketplace conditions to determine if there are additional opportunities for establishing similar or other facilities that would provide value for both the railroad and its customers, said Tysver.
“We are not limited to looking at only agricultural commodities,” she said. “Our Dallas to Dock [service] at the Dallas Intermodal Terminal is an existing example of working with another customer to establish a plastics packaging and transload operation.”
In 2018, packaging firm Katoen Natie built a plastics packaging facility in Dallas’ Prime Pointe Industrial Park served by UP. Through the Dallas to Dock service, plastic pellets are moved in hopper cars from the Gulf region to Dallas, where they are packaged and transferred into containers and trucked less than two miles to UP’s intermodal terminal. The railroad transports the containers to ports for export to several international markets, including Asia and South America.
