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The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and CSX Transportation plan to conduct three public workshops in central Maryland next month to review the development of a new intermodal facility in the state. The workshops are designed to provide the public an overview of the proposed Baltimore-Washington Rail Intermodal Facility, which would be located on CSXT’s National Gateway corridor.

Earlier this month, MDOT and CSXT representatives met with Federal Railroad Administration officials to determine criteria for selecting the proposed facility’s site. Based on those discussions, four sites were identified for further consideration under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): a portion of property at the Jessup Correctional Institution in Anne Arundel County; property north of Hanover Road in Howard County; property west of the Camden Line in Howard County; and property east of the Camden Line in Prince George’s County.

MDOT and CSXT officials have contacted some property owners and others will be approached in the coming week, according to MDOT. The April workshops are the first step in an “open and transparent public process” that will be governed by NEPA, MDOT officials said in a prepared statement.

The Baltimore-Washington Rail Intermodal Facility project calls for relocating CSX’s existing facility at Seagirt Marine Terminal to a new site south of Baltimore’s Howard Street Tunnel and near the Port of Baltimore. The new facility will incorporate “green technology,” including electric cranes, alternative energy sources, directional lighting and the latest in storm water management practices.

“The low-clearance of the Howard Street tunnel in Baltimore City does not provide freight railroads with the double-stack capability that is so critical to compete in today’s business environment,” said Maryland Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley. “By creating a new transfer facility at an appropriate industrial site south of Baltimore along the I-95 corridor, new doors of commerce will open for Maryland that will benefit the Port of Baltimore, the state’s economy and the thousands of jobs in our state that rely on a vibrant freight industry.”