Norfolk Southern’s $160 million Bellevue yard expansion to add 275 jobs
The project doubles the yard's capacity with 38 new tracks. When finished in 2015, Bellevue will be the largest classification yard on the NS system.
Norfolk Southern announced this month that it is starting a $160 million expansion of its Bellevue rail yard that will double the yard’s capacity and add about 275 railroad jobs to the roughly 700 already based here.
Chief operating officer Mark Manion said in the railroad’s announcement that Bellevue is already an important terminal and the investment will help freight move across the company’s 22-state system. NS employs about 3,600 people in Ohio.
The plans call for 38 new classification tracks, for 80 in all, and 38.5 miles of new rail, raising the number of cars sorted from about 1,800 to as many as 3,600 a day. The work also includes 145 miles of underground communication and signal cable, 140 automated switches and 11 upgraded control points. When it is finished in 2015, Bellevue will be the largest of NS’s 12 classification yards.
Bellevue has been a rail town since the Nickel Plate Road arrived in the late 1800s, and Bellevue Yard opened in 1966 on the Norfolk and Western line. Between 100 and 110 trains pass through each day, carrying mostly vehicles and parts, farm products and consumer goods.
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