The $35 million White Eagle Sand plant built by Dolese Bros. Co. in Oklahoma is one of the highlighted investments announced this week by BNSF Railway Company.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based railway said investments from its customers served by the freight rail provider in 2018 totaled nearly $3 billion. NSF said the Dolese Bros. Co. along with Kubota Tractor Corporation, WinChill and Dakota Plains were the large investors.
The railway said the investments are expected to generate nearly 1,400 new jobs in local communities. It also marked the 8th consecutive year that BNSF customers and local economic development groups invested more than $1 billion in a calendar year for new or expanded operations.
“Customer investments of this scale emphasize how our rail network can be an integral part of a creative transportation solution for a wide variety of businesses and industries,” said Colby Tanner, assistant vice president, economic development. “BNSF works tirelessly to help make locating on or near rail a quick and painless process.”
In 2018, new developments supported a wide variety of commodities including agriculture, consumer products, frozen meat, sand, aggregates and paper in more than 100 communities across the BNSF network. Highlights of supply chain solutions BNSF helped its customers achieve in 2018 include:
- Kubota Tractor Corporation – Expanding its Logistics Park Kansas City facility, Kubota increased the number of employees at the facility by more than 150 and invested about $87 million to add a million square feet to the existing distribution center.
- Dakota Plains – Located in Napa Junction, South Dakota, the new corn shuttle facility created eight new jobs in 2018 and accounts for $40 million in capital investment. Expansion discussions are already underway.
- WinChill – The 326,000-square-foot cold storage facility located at Sioux Falls Foundation Park – a BNSF Certified Site located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota – brought 105 new jobs to Sioux Falls and a $67 million investment.
- Dolese Bros. Co. – With an investment of $35 million, the White Eagle sand facility can produce more than 1,000 tons of concrete sand per hour and can load rail cars at more than 3,000 tons per hour. With a loop track capacity for 123 cars, the facility can currently load a 93-car unit train in under four hours.
