Coleman Rail, a subsidiary of Acciona Geotech, has been selected as the main contractor to build a 400 million Australian dollar (260 million euro) intermodal freight terminal in Australia that will connect road, rail and port.
The company promoting the project, Intermodal Terminal Company (ITC) – controlled by Aware Super, the country’s third largest pension fund – defends that the future terminal will be the largest in the country and will also be the best option at the end of the major Australian Inland Rail freight train project , which is expected to be more than 1,700 meters long.
This is the Somerton Intermodal Terminal, a 45-acre complex that will be completed in 2025. Up to one million containers (TEU) will then be handled there, eliminating up to 500,000 truck journeys on Melbourne’s roads, equivalent to 454 million kilometers, which will lead to savings in pollutant emissions.
As ITC reports, the work commissioned at Coleman will begin soon and the new terminal will also have a connection to the city’s port, as the Australian and Victorian governments have allocated 58 million Australian dollars (37 million euros) for the connection the port and the train.
This initiative will allow trucks to deliver or pick up containers at these logistics centers on the outskirts of Melbourne, instead of driving to the city’s port, where this task will be carried out by shuttle trains.
Acciona landed in Australia in 2002 and is currently one of the main players in the Oceania infrastructure market, where Acciona EnergÃa, its independent division focused on renewable energy, also has long-term energy sales contracts.
