EVERETT — Snohomish County secured grant funds in a federal spending bill that will bring a financial boost to a planned rail improvement in north Everett.
The $2 million in transportation dollars, received by the county as part of a federal grant package, will go toward designing upgrades at the Delta rail yard, located along the Snohomish River in northeast Everett. The yard, owned by freight rail giant BNSF, is also used by the county for transporting solid waste, and used by Amtrak for passenger rail service.
Those improvements are part three of a three-phase plan the county is undertaking to prevent rail bottlenecks and increase capacity at both the Delta Yard and the nearby Snohomish County Intermodal Yard to manage the increased need for solid waste services.
Phases one and two of the project will upgrade the Snohomish County Intermodal Yard. The upgrades will add a new rail to increase track capacity on the county property and created more on-site storage for containers, according to a county document. Those upgrades have already been funded by the county — at a cost of about $13.5 million — and are expected to be completed by summer 2027.
The phase 3 improvements — expected to cost about $35 million — are still in the early design phase. Documents from the county and federal Department of Transportation say it could add about 13,000 feet of new mainline railroad track and add more capacity to the existing intermodal yard.
That increase in capacity will allow BNSF to move more containers into the yard, county public works spokesperson Bill Craig wrote in an email, reducing the amount of times the company has to perform rail switches. The improvements, undertaken in conjunction with the state Department of Transportation, BNSF and Amtrak, could also improve speeds for freight and passenger trains, according to a county document.
“This vital rail project will improve safety and reliability for workers, passengers, and freight at the Everett Intermodal Yard while allowing us and our rail partners to continue a sustainable, low-impact operation for residents,” Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers wrote in a press release.
When a Snohomish County resident has their trash picked up at their curb, it’s brought to one of four transfer stations located throughout the county. From there, public works employees take garbage onto trucks and bring them to the Snohomish County Intermodal Yard, originally built in 1992 and located just east of the Delta Yard in North Everett. It’s then transported via freight rail to a landfill near the Oregon border.
The increase in demand for solid waste transport has necessitated the upgrades, a county document wrote. In 2022, a shortage of containers used to transport garbage from the intermodal yard led to a 45-foot mountain of trash piling up on the county facility, lengthening wait times for people dropping off their waste.
That wasn’t an issue the county could have built itself out of, public works director Kelly Snyder said in an interview Monday, as the issues stemmed from shortages at railroad companies. But the upgrades to the facilities and increased rail capacity will ensure that any backups can be cleared out more quickly and efficiently, she said.
“I’m thrilled because I think it’s a really important piece of community infrastructure, and one that, if we do well, nobody pays attention to,” Snyder said.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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