FINAL REPORT ST. LOUIS REGIONAL FREIGHT STUDY PREPARED FOR: East-West Gateway Council of Governments Missouri Department of Transportation Illinois Department of Transportation PREPARED BY: AECOM Technical Services, Inc. IHS Global Insight Civil Design, Inc. Vector Communications June 30, 2013 1 Table of Contents 01 Project Framework 1 02 Stakeholder Engagement Insights 8 03 Global Context for Freight Movement 19 04 St. Louis Regional Freight Infrastructure Context 31 05 Regional Economic Context 53 06 Economic Value of the Transportation System 68 07 Freight Corridors and Land Use Alignment 87 08 Freight Flows and Forecasts by Mode 116 09 Project Recommendations 249 Appendix Disclaimer The East-West Gateway Council of Governments (EWG) hereby gives public notice that it is the policy of the agency to assure full compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice, and related statutes and regulations in all programs and activities. Title VI requires that no person in the United States of America shall, on the grounds of race, color, sex, or national origin, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity for which EWG receives federal financial assistance. Any person who believes they have been aggrieved by an unlawful discriminatory practice under Title VI has a right to file a formal complaint with EWG. Any such complaint must be in writing and filed with EWG’s Title VI Coordinator within one hundred eighty (180) days following the date of the alleged discriminatory occurrence. For more information, or to obtain a Title VI Discrimination Complaint Form, please see our web site at http://www.ewgateway.org/TitleVI/titlevi.htm or call (314) 421-4220 or (618) 274-2750. The work that provided the basis of this publication was supported by funding under an award from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Missouri Department of Transportation and the Illinois Department of Transportation. The opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of East-West Gateway Council of Governments, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, or the Federal Transit Administration. Project Framework Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Project Outline .............................................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Data Sources ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction Beginning in June of 2012, AECOM Technical Services Inc. (AECOM) was engaged by the East- West Gateway Council of Governments (EWG) to complete a freight study for the St. Louis Region. The effort was undertaken with financial support by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). To complete the engagement, the AECOM project team included the following partners: Project Outline The intent of the St. Louis Regional Freight Study has been to clarify the current status of freight movement through the St. Louis Region as well as the future ability of local freight infrastructure to sustain growth in jobs and economic opportunity, as the St. Louis Region recovers from the Great Recession. Key work efforts associated with the project as described in this report included: Chapter 02 - Stakeholder Interviews The engagement effort focused on three elements. First, the effort began with establishment of a 23- person advisory committee to provide input to the process, and to help identify stakeholders. The committee members represented public and private sector interests in both Missouri and Illinois, with a general focus on the people organizations and operations involved in freight movement. Three advisory committee meetings were held over the course of the study. The stakeholder engagement effort included interviews with over 75 people representing public and private freight movement and economic development interests in Missouri and Illinois. The interviews were essential in framing how freight moves through the St. Louis Region and identifying key priorities for the local freight movement system. The engagement process concluded with a focused workshop on the local trucking industry to discern and understand view of truckers and safety officers regarding the function of the regional and local road network, key choke points, and areas of evolving concern. Chapter 03 - Global Context for Freight Movement Over the last 20 years, and since 2009 in particular, supply chains and distribution networks have evolved tremendously, responding to both market forces and regulatory influences, which include: Impact of the Panama Canal Expansion Changes to Great Lakes, Mississippi, and Missouri River Shipping Freight rail corridor improvements Shifts in truck served industrial sites 1-1 With the St. Louis Region’s role as a transportation gateway as a given, it is critically important to document and understand the broad array of global shifts in freight movement and infrastructure that are now occurring, and what local impacts are likely to be. An array of shifts, linked with technology, shifting markets, and changing regulations were studied. Key regional, national, and global trends that will influence the study have been summarized, clarifying critical factors to chart over the planning horizon. Chapter 04 – St. Louis Regional Freight Infrastructure Context Study efforts were built around an extensive review of GIS information from numerous sources, including EWG, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), U S Department of Transportation (USDOT), and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), as well as local county-level GIS departments across the St. Louis Region. Information collected as part of the GIS exercise included: Rail lines and yards, including freight train counts and accidents Interstates and primary / secondary roads, including traffic counts and truck accidents Parcels and land use, covering population, employment, and businesses by type Transportation analysis zone (TAZ) data Industrial real estate Other transportation infrastructure, including river terminals and intermodal yards The GIS system was used as a backbone for detailed analysis of defined sub areas and freight corridors. Other work efforts included analysis of regional economic and industrial market data, as well as a summation of broader economic factors linked with transportation. Study efforts also relied on the input from IHS Global Insight, which provided access to several in- house freight databases: Transearch is a database of U.S. freight flows by mode at a county level, covering seven modes and over 450 commodity classes. Rail Waybill Data, collected with the support of MoDOT and IDOT This section also begins to frame an underlying concern for the St. Louis Region, which is the growing awareness that U.S. transportation infrastructure has struggled to keep pace with the vast increases in shipping in recent decades. Deregulation of freight railroads led to considerable consolidation in rail lines, which increased efficiency and lower rates, but also dramatically reduced capacity. Today, although rail providers are investing heavily to increase capacity along main lines and key intermodal hubs like LA / Long Beach, Kansas City, Memphis, Chicago, Columbus, and North Baltimore (OH), infrastructure in many other secondary markets (like St. Louis) remains arguably unprepared for anticipated growth in freight volumes. Chapter 05 – Regional Economic Context A set of broader economic metrics for the St. Louis Region were evaluated, in part to provide a broader context for the study. This section initially explores state and national perspectives on a variety of economic indicators, including bank assets, consumer borrowing, home prices, and employment, in part to frame recovery from the “Great Recession”. The second part of the analysis 1-2 focuses on the St. Louis Metropolitan Area and takes a closer look at indicators focused on regional population, labor force, employment, and gross domestic product. In some cases, other comparable MSA’s are included in the analysis as benchmarks in order to provide context. These indicators are analyzed over a set of three basic timelines: pre-recession growth, recessionary decline, and post- recession recovery. Chapter 06 – Economic Value of the Transportation System Understanding the economic value of freight movement to the St. Louis Region is not a simple conversation. Economic value of freight can be defined initially in terms of the direct employment supported in these sectors, which generally include distribution, trucking, rail, barge, and air related activities. Beyond employment, while freight movement is generally viewed as a cost of doing business, its inexorable connection to manufacturing comes to the forefront. In the St. Louis Region, manufacturing directly