The City of Charlotte, North Carolina selected RLBA to provide solutions to various issues associated with proposed construction of a new intermodal freight facility at the Charlotte Douglass International Airport. The City envisions closing the present Norfolk Southern intermodal facility whose hemmed-in downtown location constrains both its functionality as a freight facility as well as urban redevelopment objectives and replacing it with a new facility with sufficient room to accommodate future expansion.

The first task in the study includes conceptual design of the proposed new intermodal facility, estimation of costs to construct the facility and an independent estimate of the capacity of the existing NS intermodal facility. Follow-on tasks include analyzing redevelopment options in the vicinity of the existing NS intermodal facility including land use options and potential uses, cost estimates of recommended capital improvements, calculation of economic benefits, evaluating development of a logistics park – an intermodal, transportation and distribution hub, all at the airport, based on the proposed new intermodal facility. The latter task includes review and evaluation of existing planning, a land use plan, infrastructure requirements and a strategy to market the new logistics park.