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  • Rail Spur Project in Ridgeland, MS Will Be the First of Many

    Rail Spur Project in Ridgeland, MS Will Be the First of Many

    TGB team to provide survey, consulting & design services

    TGB Group recently launched the first of what we expect to be many projects in the great state of Mississippi.  We’ll be engaged in a variety of professional services as part of a rail spur project for Flowood Developers of Ridgeland, MS.

    Rail spur project specs

    The first phase of the rail spur project involves our team providing survey and design for about 1,500 feet of track that will be used by a tenant of Flowood to offload aggregates it will use in numerous construction projects in and around the region.

    When this phase is complete, future work will include expanding the track to accommodate projected volume increases beyond the first year.

    Our engineering and consulting team will design the rail spur project to meet Canadian National Railroad and American Railway Engineering & Maintenance of Way (AREMA) standards for track construction.  In addition, we will handle all submittals to the railroad in order to gain their approval – a process we oversee for many of our rail-industry clients.

    Strategic expansion

    We’re excited about launching this new project for Flowood in Mississippi.  It’s an important move for us as a company, as we gradually and intelligently expand our service areas to help more companies achieve outstanding results in their engineering, property development and construction management projects.

    We will continue to serve clients throughout Texas, where we’re headquartered, and Kansas, where we’ve served on a wide variety of civil engineering and design projects during the past years.  We will also continue to support the rail industry at events, conferences and fundraisers to help more and more professionals make the connections and gain the critical information they need to better serve their clients and associates.

    If you’d like to learn more about this rail spur project for Flowood Developers, or if you have a project you’d like to discuss, contact TGB President Mike Murphy at mike@thetgbgroup.com or 866-217-7794.

  • The AREMA Annual Conference: Learning & Networking Opportunities

    The AREMA Annual Conference: Learning & Networking Opportunities

    The perfect event for all rail industry professionals

    TGB Group representatives are looking forward to the upcoming AREMA Annual Conference to be held Sept. 26-29.  Every year, the American Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) puts on a great conference with many educational and networking opportunities.

    Presented in conjunction with Railway Interchange, the conference is designed as an opportunity for rail engineering professionals to expand their industry knowledge about the latest technologies and innovations.  TGB Group will join many others who seek key distinctions that will allow them to expand and grow their businesses or consultancies.

    AREMA Annual Conference presenters

    A variety of rail-industry experts are scheduled to speak and share important knowledge with attendees that will benefit them, no matter what sector of the industry they serve.

    Every year, those who participate in the AREMA Annual Conference get to hear about what’s trending, what’s coming up the pipeline and how we can use the information to further our expertise and make our companies more fluent and effective.

    Networking with other professionals

    The AREMA Annual Conference is the perfect time to reconnect with associates and make new connections that can bring positive mutual benefit.  Just these brief (or extended) conversations can give you a wealth of insight and ideas that you can bring back home and implement with your team.

    We attend as many industry conferences and events as possible throughout the year.  While our team of civil engineering experts are at the forefront of our niche in the industry, we believe there’s always room for improvement and growth.  The AREMA Annual Conference is a great and fun way to accomplish that.

    About AREMA

    The American Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association is a professional association for those who serve in many capacities in the rail and rail engineering industries.  AREMA focuses on education with many events throughout the year.

    The association creates and distributes recommended practices regarding communications, structures, tracks and signals in the rail industry.  AREMA currently has about 6,000 members.

    We’ll see you at the conference!

  • TGB Group Hired for Port of Victoria Rail Infrastructure Project

    TGB Group Hired for Port of Victoria Rail Infrastructure Project

    Work to include a master plan for water, rail and highway transportation

    TGB Group has entered into an agreement for consulting services in the Port of Victoria rail infrastructure project. Our team will help the Port identify ways to develop rail infrastructure and operations along with other development efforts for land surrounding the port.

    We’ll begin by designing an industrial and rail-centric master plan for the property with the overall concept of a multi-modal facility offering transportation by water, rail and highway. When the plan is complete, we’ll work with the Port to outline the next steps to take to further the development of rail operations while considering building additional infrastructure.

    Port of Victoria Rail Infrastructure Project Specs

    The Port turning basin area is situated on more than 2,000 acres and is served by rail and four-lane divided highways.

    POV Dock No. 1 is a 350-foot transit dock. A new lighting system allows for 24-hour cargo operations. Twenty mooring sites, 17,000 square feet of shed space and more than three acres of improved ground storage areas are available. A 7,300-square-foot office and storage building is ready for occupancy.

    POV Dock No. 2 is an 800-foot string pier available for docking sites and barge repair. Major products transferred are liquid and dry bulk and general and project cargo. The Port of Victoria’s mission is to provide waterway transportation capabilities to create economic opportunity in the region.

    The Port recently created an industrial park with multi-modal access. The park is located within a foreign trade zone and a Texas Enterprise Zone. The Port has the ability to “build to suit” and tailor a package specific to the facility and transportation needs of customers.

    A major cost savings was realized by including the basin expansion with the completion of the widening and deepening of the canal. In addition to almost doubling the size of the harbor, a 400-foot-by-150-foot barge slip was added for greater safety and efficiency.

    TGB’s work on the Port of Victoria rail infrastructure project will allow the Port to realize many of its expansion and development targets.

    Port of Victoria rail infrastructure project

    About the Port of Victoria

    With inland waterways that lead to the Gulf of Mexico and markets throughout the world, the Port of Victoria provides water, rail, highway and air transportation options. It is a center for the chemical, construction, steel fabrication and agribusiness industries, offering access to all transportation modes.

    The Port is located on the Texas coast between Houston and Corpus Christi.

    To learn more about our work on the Port of Victoria rail infrastructure project, please contact:

    Mike Murphy, president, TGB Group: (866) 217-7794

  • TGB Group Sponsors Golf Fundraiser Event

    TGB Group Sponsors Golf Fundraiser Event

    Nearly 200 Rail Industry Golfers Participated

    For the fifth consecutive year, TGB Groups has helped to sponsor the annual golf fundraiser held by the Southwest Association of Rail Shippers (SWARS). This year’s event happened at the Trails of The Woodlands club in The Woodlands, Texas.

    The October 2, 2020 golf fundraiser event was attended by 196 golfers from companies associated with the rail industry.

    TGB group sponsored the 7th hole on the Oaks Course, one of two courses at the Trails of The Woodlands. For this hole, the winner would be the golfer who could hit the longest drive. That honor went to Mark Dearing, owner of Vertex Builders.

    Other incentives at the SWARS golf fundraiser included the longest putt, the closest approach shot and a $10,000 hole-in-one challenge.

    Golf fundraiser benefits a scholarship fund

    As in years past, the golfing event raised money for the George Elking, Jr. Scholarship Fund.

    Elking is known within the rail industry, having served as SWARS president in 1995 and then as president of the North American Association of Rail Shippers in 1998.

    TGB Group is always excited to play in the golf fundraiser event and help support the Elking scholarship. Our employs have participated for the past 15 years, and we’ve been a proud hole sponsor since 2016.

    The large turnout of nearly 200 golfers shows the unity of many companies within the rail industry. We’re like a brotherhood – and sisterhood – who have built multiple industry connections and always enjoy getting reacquainted with the folks who make railroads run.

    SWARS meetings

    The golfing event fundraisers are held twice a year, always in conjunction with official SWARS meetings. We encourage individuals and companies in the rail industry to be part of the meetings, where critical information is discussed and to get involved in the golf fundraiser as a player or sponsor, where a good time is always guaranteed.

    Here’s a recap of our last SWARS golfing event.

  • TGB Group Receives 2020 Best of Spring Award

    TGB Group Receives 2020 Best of Spring Award

    Best of Spring Award Program recognizes businesses in the Spring, Texas, area

    The Spring Award Program (SAP) in June 2020 selected the TGB Group for the 2020 Best of Spring Award in the Civil Engineering and Consulting Company category.

    This is our second year in a row to receive the award, which showcases companies that have demonstrated success in their marketing efforts within the local Spring, Texas, community and among other nominees in their business categories.

    About the 2020 Best of Spring Award, the SAP says, “These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Spring area a great place to live, work and play.”

    The Program committee considers a variety of data to select the companies they recognize with an annual Best of Spring Award.  Some of the data is collected internally while other data is received from third parties.

    The entire TGB team is very proud to receive the 2020 Best of Spring Award.  We enjoy being honored for all the hard work we’ve put in to growing our business.  Even more important than awards, however, is the fact that our efforts in building our company result in an ever-increasing quality of service to our clients.

    About the 2020 Best of Spring Award Program

    The Spring Award Program is an annual awards program designed to honor the accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Spring area. Recognition is given to companies that have used their best practices and implemented programs to create competitive advantages and long-term value within their markets.

    The Program works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. The mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the larger U.S. economy.

    TGB Group also received the 2020 Topeka Award in June!

  • Railcar Storage Yard Development Project

    Railcar Storage Yard Development Project

    TGB providing design services to Texas Gonzales & Northern Railway

    Texas Gonzales & Northern Railway (TXGN) has again selected TGB Group for design services in support of its railcar storage yard development project that will add capacity to its already sizeable yard in Gonzales, Texas.

    We’re proud of our long-term relationship with TXGN and are honored to have been chosen to bring our cutting-edge services to this exciting railcar storage yard development effort.  Our team will provide survey, design and construction oversight activities for a new yard expansion that will give TXGN an additional 400 car spots for a new client they recently secured.

    TGB Group’s bottom-line objective here is to create greater efficiency and cost savings for TXGN.  We’re partnering with Shackelford Construction & Hauling, LLC of Yazoo City, Miss., to operate the project as a design build.

    Texas Gonzales & Northern Railway tasked TGB with providing a plan to complete the railcar storage yard development expansion in a very short window, something we’re quite familiar with.  We will be feeding up-to-date design specifications to Shackelford each week in order to speed up the process.  This will allow construction to start with minimal design work completed and continue quickly, cutting more than 45 days from a traditional timeline.

    TXGN railcar storage yard development project specs

    • More than 30,000 feet of track
    • 19 turnouts
    • Access roadways
    • Drainage for the entire site
    • Existing drainage improvements
    • Creation of a master plan for additional adjacent yard tracks that TXGN can add later

    About TXGN

    Texas Gonzales & Northern Railway has been providing rail transport, storage and operations for companies in the heartland of Texas since 1992. Located midway between Gonzales and Harwood, off U.S. 1-10, TXGN owns and/or manages 13 miles of lead track, and approximately 61 miles of storage and loop track. TXGN interchanges with the Union Pacific Railroad and handles several thousand cars carrying energy-related products: grain and animal feed meals, clay/bentonite and raw and finished heavy metal products.

    To learn more about our railcar storage yard development project for TXGN, please contact:

    Mike Murphy, president, TGB Group: (866) 217-7794

  • Survey, Design and Construction for Sugar Land Rail Facility

    Survey, Design and Construction for Sugar Land Rail Facility

    TGB Instrumental in Accredo Packaging Expansion

    TGB Group provided professional survey, design and construction services for the expansion of the Accredo Packaging North American production facility in Sugar Land, Texas.  The latest in three phases of expansion was completed in the first quarter of 2020 and provided Accredo with nearly three times more operational space.

    Highlights of the survey, design and construction expansion project include:

    • Total facility space upon completion: 550,000 square feet, which is nearly almost three times the original size
    • 165,000 additional square feet of warehouse and office space
    • 35,840 square feet of new manufacturing space
    • Work included adding a 4,000-amp underground power supply
    • Two 500t air-cooled chillers were added to serve production equipment
    • Two new rail spurs
    • 1,825 additional feet of railroad track along with a crossover and drainage accommodation

    New survey, design and construction increases capacity and creates jobs

    The expansion project will give Accredo a significant capacity increase for bag and pouch making, adhesive lamination projects and flexographic printing.  Annual flexible film production was increased to 2 billion feet from 1.5 billion feet.

    Along with greater production at its Sugar Land facility, which opened in 2009, the expansion work resulted in 175 new jobs in the area, bringing the number of Accredo employees up to 525 from 350 before the project began.

    TGB Group partnered with Railworks for much of the survey, design and construction services on this project, which supported Kingham Dalton Wilson, which oversaw the design and construction of a new building located to the south of the existing facility.

    About Accredo Packaging

    With headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, Accredo Packaging brings packaging solutions that are both innovative and sustainable to a number of multinational corporations and specialty brands.  The firm is a member of the Houston Minority Supplier Development Council.

    Products produced by Accredo include wicketed bags, pouches and bundling; cotextured films; overwrap film; laminated barrier film rollstock and more.

    To learn more about TGB Group’s survey, design and construction services for the Accredo Sugar Land facility expansion, please contact:

    Mike Murphy, president, TGB Group: (866) 217-7794

  • BBB Gold Star Certificate from Houston Better Business Bureau

    BBB Gold Star Certificate from Houston Better Business Bureau

    The BBB is one of the many ways we connect with our community

    TGB Group has received a 2020 BBB Gold Star Certificate from the Better Business Bureau of Greater Houston and South Texas.  We learned about this honor in April 2020.

    BBB membership is one of the many ways we stay connected with our community and is an opportunity for our community to stay connected with us.  There are Better Business Bureaus throughout the United States, and each one is in place to showcase businesses and companies in its area that perform to the highest ethical and professional standards.

    We’re proud to be recognized with the BBB Gold Star Certificate.  While our membership with the Houston BBB is just one of many memberships we hold, it’s important to us, because many consumers (including our future customers) consider it important that a company be in good standing with their local bureau.

    Along with the BBB Gold Star Certificate, we maintain an A+ rating with the Houston BBB and have received 5 stars on each of our customer reviews through the bureau.

    More important than a BBB Gold Star Certificate and other awards

    It’s always nice to be recognized by organizations and agencies for a job well done.  But at TGB Group, the most important recognition comes from our customers, the people we serve and help to grow and expand their operations.  Without satisfied customers on your side, you really don’t have a business.

    Since we launched our company three years ago, certain elements have been in place to guide us in all our work.  They include:

    • Integrity
    • Honesty
    • Hard work
    • Industry expertise
    • Clear communication
    • Customer-first approach
    • On-time delivery of services

    The way we see it, when the owners of a business set the standard for everyone in the company, when they hold employees – and themselves – to these standards, things just run more smoothly and client satisfaction is guaranteed to be high.

    If you’re interested in hiring the TGB team for your next engineering or design project, give us a call at (866) 217-7794 and tell us what you want to accomplish.

  • Importance of a Feasibility Study

    Importance of a Feasibility Study

    How TGB Group helps its clients by working through all the details of a civil design/engineering project

    Of all the parts and parcels of a civil design or engineering project, the feasibility study may be the most critical.  Like the old saying, “Failure to plan is planning to fail.”  A quality feasibility study early in the planning stages allows you to address the major concerns that will be involved in doing the project and operating with it afterwards.

    When the TGB Group team performs a feasibility study for our clients, we customize each area to our clients’ and the project’s specific needs.  General areas we cover include the following.

    Feasibility study components

    Market impact

    In the very earliest stages, company leaders must forecast the viability of a project in terms of how it will be accepted in the market and the impact it will have on competitors and sales.  A detailed feasibility study covering market impact projections is critical for every new project.

    Technical assessment

    Once we determine that the business idea is sound, we want to ensure that the civil and structural engineering aspects as well as design are capable of being executed in a way that supports the project throughout all its stages.

    Management

    We evaluate project management capabilities to confirm that the project will be overseen with the expertise necessary to make it successful.

    Financial feasibility study

    Paying for the many services required to complete a project is a paramount concern.  We want to investigate and determine that the client will be able to secure the necessary funding to see the project through to completion.

    Economic concerns

    The economic part of a feasibility study looks at the potential economic benefits and losses that could result if the project is developed and completed as planned.

    Cultural impact

    Part of a quality feasibility assessment is considering the impact of the project on the local community and culture.  Many problems can be alleviated by knowing what these impacts may be during the building phase and after the project is finished.

    Safety

    Safety assessments look at the wide range of possible environmental influences the project will create.  It’s important for our clients to see the “bigger picture” in this area so alterations to certain aspects of the project, if deemed necessary, can be made early.

    Permitting

    Every project requires a number of permits, licenses and approvals.  A feasibility study should determine which of these will be required, how they will be secured and who will be responsible for securing them.

    As noted, every feasibility study is unique, so the above elements are simply a general guide.  The bottom line is we want to make your project as smooth and predictable as possible from the earliest planning stages to the day you open for business.

  • 2020 TSLRRA Annual Meeting

    TSLRRA Annual Meeting in Dallas

    2020 TSLRRA Annual Meeting

    An opportunity to network and help support this important organization

    TGB Group was excited to attend and sponsor the TSLRRA Annual Meeting Jan. 23-25, 2020 at the Beeman Hotel in Dallas. We’ve been a member of the Texas Short Line & Regional Railroad Association for three years and have always considered it an important part of our professional lives.

    Among its many other activities, the TSLRRA provides us with vital details about current short line rail news on local and legislative levels.

    Why we attend the TSLRRA Annual Meeting

    It’s important for us to support an organization like TSLRRA as they continue their outreach to help smaller “mom and pop” railroads.  The annual meeting is one of the ways they do it, and every year the event includes the opportunity to network with others in the railroad industry and hear informative talks from leading speakers.

    This year’s TSLRRA Annual Meeting featured guest speaker Ed Emmett, a former Harris County Judge and Texas Department of Transportation Freight Advisory Committee member.

    Because of their smaller size, short line railroads often are overlooked, yet they’re quite important for the farms and factories that connect with large shipping concerns and exporters. Past TSLRRA Annual Meeting/luncheon events have provided us with information regarding heavy regulatory initiatives, which can stand in the way of economic growth and Austin short line tax credit.

    Short line associations are pushing Congress to make a tax credit permanent to help short lines improve infrastructure. modal equity and the benefits of membership through growth.

    About TSLRRA

    The Texas Short Line & Regional Railroad Association is a nonprofit professional organization representing the interests of the more than 40 short line railroads and industry related businesses in Texas.

    Established in 2003, TSLRRA’s purpose has been to promote the state’s economy, champion public safety issues and partner with local governments and organizations to enhance the transportation infrastructure and bring new jobs and prosperity to Texas communities. Learn more about the Texas Short Line & Regional Railroad Association.