Frequently Asked Questions

What is an intermodal facility?

Are you a consumer of electronics, furniture, machinery, meat, seafood, manufactured products, pharmaceuticals, plastics, rubber, textiles, leather, alcoholic beverages, stone, batteries, fertilizers, fuel oil, logs, precision instruments, printed products, ink cartridges, paint, milled grain products, and transport equipment? These and hundreds of other safe, clean products for daily life are handled through intermodal transportation – a system that ties together the best features of railroad, trucks, and ocean-going vessels. By making the best use of existing rail and truck capacity, intermodal reduces highway congestion, helps reduce and defer highway maintenance and expansion, reduces emissions into the atmosphere, reduces fuel consumption, reduces shipping and travel costs, and promotes jobs and economic development. Intermodal facilities are to railroads like hubs are to airlines – they help get the cargo to the right place at the right time.

How bright is an intermodal facility?

Night operations at an intermodal facility register 1-5 foot-candles of luminance. By comparison, a typical parking lot at night registers 5-10, and a night ballgame registers 50-100. Daylight equals 10,000.

How much noise does an intermodal facility make?

Some noise is generated at the gates, where trucks enter and exit. Most noise, however, is reduced by distance, terrain, vegetation, and natural and man-made obstructions. Sound levels along the perimeter of an intermodal facility register in the same range, 60 decibels, as normal conversation. By comparison, a hair dryer registers 90 decibels, and an iPod at peak volume registers 115 decibels.

Do intermodal facilities meet air quality standards?

Impact on local air quality is insignificant. Even worst-case impacts are well within air quality standards. 

Do intermodal facilities protect water quality?

Yes, Norfolk Southern uses Best Management Practices to protect water quality. These include preventive measures, such as minimizing the total area disturbed by grading, designing the layout so that it avoids perennial streams and most wetlands, and re-vegetating areas temporarily disturbed during construction. They also include mitigation, such as vegetated swales for infiltration to reduce runoff volume; detention ponds for moderating peak runoff and removing pollutants; oil-water separators for removing oils, diesel fuel, gasoline, and solids from storm water runoff; and protection design for containing accidental spills onsite.

How do intermodal facilities protect cultural resources?

Advance resource surveys help make sure that cultural, archeological, and historic resources are not impacted during construction and operation.