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Tag: Union Pacific

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
June 4, 2020
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
June 4, 2020
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.

February 14, 2020
Jindal Saw USA hires TGB Group for design and rail-consulting services
We’ll provide the design for 11,500+ feet of track and more for this major expansion project

Jindal Saw USA has contracted with TGB Group for rail-consulting services and other professional services for a new pipe mill at Jindal Saw’s pipe manufacturing and pipe coating facility in Baytown, Texas.

Expansion to the existing facility includes a new 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, new rail connections with Union Pacific Railroad at the north and south ends of the property, service roads, drainage and a new road crossing.

Our design and rail-consulting services will include:
- Design of over 11,500 feet of track that will include a new siding for the railroads to use
- Drop and pull tracks for Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway
- Loading and unloading tracks that will enter the new building
- Drainage for the new rail
- A new road crossing for access to an additional piece of the property on the other side of the railroad’s main line.
When design work is completed and approved by the railroads, TGB will provide permitting assistance and construction oversight for the project.

TGB started the rail-consulting project in late June 2019 and is already well on the way to completing the first phase of the Union Pacific Industrial Development process.

Along with professional rail-consulting services, our team will provide preliminary conceptual designs and a proposed operating plan for the railroad’s review. Upon approval of preliminary drawings, we will continue with the engineering design documents and additional review procedures with Union Pacific and Chambers County to gain final approval for construction of the track portion of the project.

Construction of the project is expected to start in the middle of 2020 and last for about six months.

To learn more about our rail-consulting services and other design work for the Jindal Saw rail project, please contact:

Mike Murphy, president, TGB Group: (866) 217-7794
July 27, 2019
Drainage Solution in the Works for Pasadena Chemical Plant
TGB Group will coordinate efforts with the plant and Union Pacific Railroad

TGB Group is working with the owners of a Pasadena chemical plant to design and construct a drainage solution for their property. Actually located just outside Pasadena, this project requires coordination with both the Union Pacific Railroad, which serves the chemical plant with railcars, and the chemical plant itself. Another critical requirement for the project is that it be finished by early October 2018, which means both the design and construction will have to be completed inside a three-month span.

To remedy the Pasadena chemical plant’s drainage issues, TGB Group designed an underground pipe solution that would travel beneath and on both sides of two Union Pacific railroad tracks. The pipe is a 24-inch smooth steel pipe that will extend 75-feet. This will allow the pipe to meet or exceed design specifications and requirements pertaining to drainage output and the weight of the two railroads and any trains that pass over it. The drainage pipe will discharge rain and process water into a tributary located east of the rail track, ensuring that drainage will not be inhibited.

Steps required to gain project approval

Tasks TGB Group must undertake in order to gain approval for this Pasadena chemical plant project include:
1. Field survey and reports
2. Comprehensive drainage study
3. Creation of the drainage design
4. Submission of documents to the Union Pacific Railroad
At this time, we have finished with the design and now are waiting for Union Pacific to give the go-ahead to start construction and related work.

To learn more about our involvement in this Pasadena chemical plant project, please contact:

Mike Murphy, president, TGB Group: (832) 748-7603
August 10, 2018