Alabama – Gov. Kay Ivey on January 4 announced the creation of the A-USA Corridor, a proposed $231.6 million program of rail projects supported by a public-private partnership (P3).
The first phase of the corridor initiative involves a $71.6 million project to link the Port of Mobile with the McCalla Intermodal Facility near Birmingham by making 12 specific track, signal and yard improvements on rail lines between Mobile, Selma, and Birmingham.
This 280-mile rail corridor also will link mega economic development sites in Etowah (Little Canoe Creek), Shelby (Calera), and Washington/Mobile (Calvert) counties, each totaling more than 1,000 acres. A fourth site in Jefferson County (McCalla) will see the development of a 104-acre site with up to a million square feet of warehousing under roof.More than half of the project will be funded by a private railroad company. Alabama is investing $5 million into the project, with the remainder coming from present and future federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Program (CRISI) grants through the Alabama Department of Transportation.