Union Pacific Railroad officially opened its $83 million, 260-acre state-of-the-art intermodal terminal on 20 September 2006. The new container terminal increases the railroad’s international and domestic container capacity in the Salt Lake City area by three times, while improving traffic efficiencies.

Union Pacific’s new intermodal facility will serve dozens of Utah companies that rely on intermodal rail freight to ship and receive containers with various types of materials from around the world. "This facility demonstrates Union Pacific’s unwavering commitment to better serve customers," said vice president and general manager of intermodal John Kaiser. "UP will now handle more efficiently the growing rail-truck freight traffic in the Salt Lake City area in an environmentally sensitive way."

Because of the substantial growth in intermodal traffic, particularly in the Salt Lake City area over the last several years, Union Pacific’s new Salt Lake City Intermodal Terminal was designed to handle a capacity of 250,000 over-the-road trailers or ocean-going containers annually. The additional capacity allows Union Pacific to continue to pursue opportunities in this growing rail-truck market.

The Salt Lake City Intermodal Terminal features also include:
• One track for receiving and departure of trains.
• Four tracks with capacity to handle the unloading of 75 intermodal "double-stack" railcars.
• An additional five tracks to stage rail cars prior to unloading or loading.
• Two cranes that straddle the rail cars and one rubber-tired mobile "packer" that lifts trailers and containers on and off rail cars. The cranes are equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, increasing loading and unloading efficiencies.
• More than 1,300 "staging" or parking places for trailers and containers.
• Advanced technology that coordinates all movement of rail cars, trucks and trailers and containers at the facility.
• Technology that decreases truck processing from four minutes to as little as 30 to 90 seconds.
• A state-of-the-art security system.
Intermodal shipping involves moving freight by more than one mode of transportation without re-packing the shipping container. An example:
• An ocean-going container, loaded with clothing, arrives by vessel at the Port of Long Beach, Calif., from the Pacific Rim.
• The container is off-loaded from the ship and placed on a railroad flat car.
• The flat car is moved by train to the Salt Lake City Intermodal Terminal.
• The container is removed from the flat car and placed on an over-the-road truck chassis.
• The container is driven by truck to the customer in the Salt Lake City area.
Construction began February 1, 2005, and was completed in July 2006. The new facility, located two miles south of I-80 just off 5600 West, has additional space for future expansion based on customer demand and capacity needs.