Edited release
01/13/23
Iowa Interstate Railroad LLC will be purchasing roughly 30 acres in Iowa City’s southeast industrial campus.
In an announcement from the company and the City, the purchase will allow for the creation of a new rail-to-truck transloading facility. The plot of land is located about 1,000 yards east of 420th Street’s intersection with Highway 6.
The new loading facility will help make a new, local transportation connection between rail and Interstate 80, Highway 6, and Highway 218.
Rail is also the most fuel-efficient way to move freight across the land, giving the City a more climate-friendly shipping option. City Manager Geoff Fruin said in the announcement that with the transportation sector responsible for a quarter of all greenhouse gases locally, projects like this show how actions on the local level contribute to solutions on a larger scale. Joe Parsons, Iowa Interstate Railroad president, said that the new facility not only will provide significant value to customers, but will allow other area companies to become rail shippers.
IAIS is a Cedar Rapids-based railroad company that operates in the Midwest between the Chicago, Peoria, Illinois, and Omaha, Nebraska areas.