The Southworth PalletPal® Pallet Inverter is the fast, safe, economical way
to rotate pallet loads. The pressure-adjustable clamp secures loads up to
48" x 48" x 60" and weighing up to 4,400 lbs. and rotates them 180°.
The uses are endless…
• Transferring to or from in-house to shipping pallets or slip sheets
• Replacing damaged items at the bottom of a load
• Turning inventory for freshness
• Replacing broken pallets
For complete details, visit www.SouthworthProducts.com/inverter
making work faster, safer, and easier since 1890
TEL: (800) 743-1000 • FAX: (207) 797-4734
SouthworthProducts.com • salesinfo@SouthworthProducts.com
One Minute With No Manual Labor
16-041 Pallet Inverter Ad-DCV.indd 1 2/1/16 9: 42 AM
as its hub for all of Michigan. Norfolk,
Va.-based Norfolk Southern Corp., CSX’s
main rival in the East, also relies on the
Detroit facility.
Detroit’s aging rail intermodal facility
is in dire need of updating. However,
a joint bid by CSX and the Michigan
Department of Transportation to obtain
federal grants for modernization fell short
at the U.S. Department of Transportation,
even though CSX was willing to pony up
half of the project’s estimated $42.1 million cost.
Then there is the land itself, a good
part of which is, in industrial property
lingo, “blighted.” “There are buildings,
but many of them are obsolete,” said
Joseph G.B. Bryan, a principal consultant
of Parsons Brinckerhoff and the report’s
primary author. Many parts of Detroit
were badly neglected as it withered for
years on the economic vine. City and state
officials will need to erect “contemporary
properties” if Detroit is to attract meaningful shipping and logistics investment,
Bryan said.
The 197-page report, issued in March
2015, calls for creating a “Trade, Logistics
and Industrial District” (TLI) in Southwest
Detroit that would be funded by the public and private sectors to the tune of $1.6
billion to $2.2 billion. Government would
kickstart the project with an investment
of $400 million to $530 million over a
six- to eight-year period, according to the
report. The state, which commissioned
the study, supports its findings. However,
Michigan officials have not signed off on
the TLI project because it has not received
unanimous support, according to people
familiar with the matter.
The TLI project would form a three-legged stool for Michigan to compete in
today’s logistics market, the report said:
First, it creates a portfolio of logistics
assets aggregated in one area. Second,
it sends a message that the state is committed to the task. Lastly, it produces a
“springboard for growth” by cultivating
what the report called a “targeted cluster”
of industries that would benefit from
Detroit’s location. The project would
generate 15,000 to 20,000 long-term jobs
in Michigan, 6,000 to 8,000 of those in
metro Detroit, according to the report.
A BRIDGE TOO FAR FROM
COMPLETION?
At the heart of the project is a trans-
border bridge named after Gordie
Howe, the late hockey legend who
spent most of his career with the
National Hockey League’s Detroit
Red Wings. The proposed $2.1 bil-
lion span, expected to open around
2020, would initially have six lanes
but could be widened to 10 lanes, and
perhaps more. The bridge would cre-
ate a straight shot between Windsor
and the proposed logistics cluster,
which would be located about one
mile west of the Ambassador Bridge
