Strategic Location Enhanced by New Interstate 75 Exit
Published May 08, 2009
Freight service to Madison County is provided by major rail carrier CSX Corp. and by short-line operator R.J. Corman Railroad Group’s Central Kentucky Line.
Attracting new businesses, getting employees to their jobs and moving goods takes roads, rails and runways, and Madison County is moving forward on all three fronts.
The county is strategically located. A short drive south of Lexington, it is within 600 miles of half the U.S. population and nearly 60 percent of the country’s manufacturing base. Interstate 75, running 1,785 miles from Michigan to Florida, slices through the county and offers seven exits - including a new Exit 83. “I-75 is one of the most traveled interstates in America,” says James Howard, executive director of the Richmond Industrial Development Corp. “We are blessed to have it pass through.”
The RIDC has two industrial parks, with more than 400 acres combined, and is working on a third. Exit 83, ongoing improvements to U.S. 25 and a new bypass have created better access to the sites, Howard says. The edge of the first park is a mere 2.5 miles via four-lane highway from the exit. (It used to be 5.3 miles on two lanes.)
Shipping More by Rail
To the south in Berea, the 319-acre Menelaus Industrial Park is 1.5 miles from Interstate 75. Berea Industrial Park is an even shorter hop – a mile – and a CSX rail line reaches the property’s eastern boundary.
R.J. Corman Railroad Group is another rail provider in the region, and cars from its Central Kentucky Line take massive aluminum ingots from the Novelis Inc. manufacturing facility in Berea across the state to Russellville. The ingots, weighing about 60,000 pounds apiece, are made from recycled aluminum and then rolled into sheets that are used to produce new cans.
By transporting the ingots on railcars, the company has taken an estimated 70,000 big trucks off Kentucky roads every year, says Noel Rush, R.J. Corman’s vice president for strategic planning and development. “With one ingot per truck, there used to be 60 to 70 trucks every other day,” he says.
For moving freight, railroads are getting more attention because they relieve highways of truck traffic while boasting higher fuel efficiency and fewer adverse environmental effects, Rush says.
“We are always looking for opportunities to increase our freight traffic into and out of Central Kentucky,” he says.
Airport and Bus Improvements
For general-aviation aircraft, the Madison County Airport plans to lengthen the runway by 400 feet to 5,000 feet. The airport already offers aircraft storage, rental and maintenance, plus charter service.
Commercial air service is available at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington.
Public transportation is another part of the mobility mix. Both Berea and Richmond have bus systems, and the Kentucky River Foothills Development Council in August 2008 started an intercity connector route that has fixed stops but also drops passengers off for medical and other appointments.
David Sowder, the council’s transportation director, expects ridership to increase as more stores open in the new Richmond Centre shopping complex. A day pass costs just $2.
“It’s great,” he says. “During the gas crunch we were doing more, but people got used to it. This is so much easier than getting in the cars.”
Story by Pamela Coyle
Photo by Staff
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