advertisement

---

Last year, BNSF Railway Co.’s industrial development efforts paid off to the tune of $1.3 billion worth of new and expanded plants along the Class I’s lines compared with 2004’s $1.2 billion worth of industrial development.

In 2005, various companies began building or enlarging 114 facilities, including lumber yards and transload terminals in California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and Texas; paper distribution centers in California and Kansas; and other facilities designed to handle building products, fertilizers, plastics, aggregates or ethanol.

In Illinois, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. began constructing a 3.4 million-square-foot bulk storage facility near BNSF's Logistics Park-Chicago in Elwood. The project will be completed in second-half 2006.

“Our partnerships with state and local public and private economic development agencies help businesses accelerate improvements to their supply chain process — from site selection to optimizing distribution networks,” said Vann Cunningham, BNSF assistant vice president of economic development, in a prepared statement.