BNSF Railway Co. has begun grading work for a planned $10 million automotive unloading facility here, says Gus Melonas, Seattle-based spokesman for BNSF’s Northwest territory.

The new facility will be located at 4510 E. Wisconsin, on the west side of the railroad’s central rail yard that’s located south of Trent Avenue, mostly between Havana Street and Fancher Road. The facility will be double the size of the railroad’s current automotive unloading facility, located on Mission Avenue about a mile away, Melonas says, and is designed to be a more efficient, state-of-art operation.

“We hope to have it open by year’s end,” he says.

According to the project’s predevelopment application, which the Journal reported on in April, the project will include general site grading and excavation, the installation of some new track, and asphalt paving, plus other related infrastructure work. Plans also include construction of a 12-foot-by-60-foot prefabricated building.

A conceptual plan released with the predevelopment application showed the facility, which Melonas said will occupy about 13 acres of land, providing parking for more than 1,400 vehicles plus 34 haul-away trucks, in two long parking lots partly bordering new sections of railroad track.

An east lot, between Havana and Freya streets, is to include parking spaces for 749 vehicles and 19 haul-away trucks, and a west lot, stretching west of Freya, is to include parking spaces for 675 vehicles and 15 haul-away trucks. 

Grading work is expected to be completed by about the end of October, and BNSF hopes to complete paving work by the end of the year, weather allowing, Melonas says.

Melonas says BNSF transports about 12,000 vehicles here a year for unloading and delivery, mostly to Inland Northwest car lots. Separate from the new unloading facility, the railroad has spent about $10 million recently on upgrades to its rail yard here, he says.