Hattiesburg American
by Chad R. Miller

In a recent Sun Herald article ("Barbour envisions South Mississippi as a major hub" Jan. 9) Gov. Haley Barbour promoted the concept of an intermodal freight facility at Palmer's Crossing that will transfer Port of Gulfport shipping containers between rail and truck.

This freight transportation project could provide a significant economic boost to the Hattiesburg area, but having worked with and studied projects like this, I submit that if the public officials of the state and region do not start active citizen engagement, the project could run into problems.

Communities across the country have experienced significant economic development benefits from similar transportation projects.

The Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal spurred nearly $600 million in private capital investment while the Alliance Texas Logistics Park encouraged over a billion dollars in private investment, 18,000 permanent jobs, and $147 million in property taxes. The Logistics Park Kansas City is expected to generate more than $233 million in state and local taxes over 20 years.

As long as the U.S. continues to import and export goods, these operations will be needed to meet the demands of global trade.

However, the Roanoke Virginia intermodal hub for the Norfolk & Southern (N&S) Heartland Corridor provides a cautionary tale.

N&S and Virginia officials took a ham-handed approach to launching an intermodal facility similar to the Palmer's Crossing concept. After a secretive process to select a site, N&S issued letters to land owners of the proposed site in the Ellis Valley near Roanoke threatening them with the use of eminent domain.

This created an uproar in the community. Contentious public hearings erupted where claims were made that the increased truck traffic was going to kill children and pollute the bucolic valley.
 
After this public outrage, the county even tried to give N&S $1 million to NOT select that location. Much of this mess could have been avoided if public officials and the railroad early on started a public awareness campaign to get citizen buy-in.

The future of the Hattiesburg intermodal facility is tied up with the request for federal funding, but it is not too early to start laying the groundwork for this important economic development project.

Chad R. Miller is assistant professor and assistant director of the Logistics, Trade, and Transportation Center at the University of Southern Mississippi's Department of Economic & Workforce Development. Contact him at chad.r.miller@usm.edu.