The
Sacramento Railyards (or
Railyard Specific Plan) is an urban infill
brownfieldBrownfields are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use. Expansion or redevelopment of such a facility may be complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations....
project of approximately 240
acreThe acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre....
s at the western terminus of the
First Transcontinental RailroadThe First Transcontinental Railroad is the popular name of the U.S. railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and Union Pacific Railroad from Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska to Alameda, California...
in the Richards Boulevard neighborhood of the city of
Sacramento, CaliforniaSacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. Located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2007 estimated population of 460,242, it is the seventh-largest...
. The redevelopment project is being developed by Thomas Enterprises and master-planned by the Jerde Partnership firm. Construction is projected to last until the late 2020s and costs are estimated at over five billion
dollarsThe United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
.
The site holds significant historical and cultural importance to Sacramento.
The
Sacramento Railyards (or
Railyard Specific Plan) is an urban infill
brownfieldBrownfields are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use. Expansion or redevelopment of such a facility may be complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations....
project of approximately 240
acreThe acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre....
s at the western terminus of the
First Transcontinental RailroadThe First Transcontinental Railroad is the popular name of the U.S. railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and Union Pacific Railroad from Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska to Alameda, California...
in the Richards Boulevard neighborhood of the city of
Sacramento, CaliforniaSacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. Located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2007 estimated population of 460,242, it is the seventh-largest...
. The redevelopment project is being developed by Thomas Enterprises and master-planned by the Jerde Partnership firm. Construction is projected to last until the late 2020s and costs are estimated at over five billion
dollarsThe United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
.
The site holds significant historical and cultural importance to Sacramento. The project features the preservation and partial reuse of the "Central Shops" buildings originally used for railroad maintenance and the Southern Pacific Depot. One of the Central Shops will be refitted into a public marketplace. Furthermore, a railroad museum and a performing arts center is planned.
Overall, the project is expected to include 12,000 housing units and create 19,000 permanent jobs.
History
The first railroad in Sacramento as well as California was the Sacramento Valley Railroad finished in 1856 and engineered by
Theodore JudahTheodore Dehone Judah was an American railroad engineer who dreamed of the First Transcontinental Railroad and launching it over the Central Pacific Railroad. He performed much of the land survey work to determine the best possible route over the Sierra Nevada mountains.-Early history:He was born...
. Judah's efforts to realize a transcontinental railroad was transferred to the power of "The Big Four" investors, who created the
Central Pacific RailroadThe Central Pacific Railroad was the California-to-Utah portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in North America.Many proposals to build a transcontinental railroad failed because of the disputes over slavery in Washington; with the secession of the South, the modernizers in the Republican...
. The
First Transcontinental RailroadThe First Transcontinental Railroad is the popular name of the U.S. railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and Union Pacific Railroad from Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska to Alameda, California...
was completed in 1869, when Central Pacific's line joined
Union PacificThe Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest and oldest operating railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
's at
Promontory SummitPromontory in Box Elder County, Utah, United States, is notable as the location of Promontory Summit where the United States' first Transcontinental Railroad was officially completed on May 10, 1869....
. Sacramento's terminus was the primary departure station for the railroad until 1883.
Central Pacific merged with Southern Pacific in 1870, and the former's maintenance
yardsA rail yard, or railroad yard, is a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives. Railroad yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock stored off the mainline, so that they do not obstruct the flow of traffic....
were expanded with the addition of the Southern Pacific shops. The shops were used for locomotive repairs, general maintenance and, occasionally, creation. The yards steadily expanded, becoming the biggest railroad facility west of the
Mississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
and employing approximately one-third of all Sacramento workers in the early decades of the 20th century.
Railroad usage in the United States gradually lessened over the century, and, by the start of the 21st century, railyard upkeep had become less economically viable and laid largely dormant. In 2003, developer Millennia Associates vied to purchase the southern of the railyards, hoping to eventually obtain the entire railyard from Union Pacific. Millennia’s financial partner, Thomas Enterprises, eventually finalized the railyard purchase on 2006-12-29.
Environmental remediation on the site has occurred since the 1980s. The
California Department of Toxic Substances ControlThe California Department of Toxic Substances Control is an agency of the government of the state of California. The Mission of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control is to provide the highest level of safety, and to protect public health and the environment from toxic harm...
(DTSC) and the
Environmental Protection AgencyThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged to regulate chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land...
have identified numerous soil and groundwater contaminants on and near the development area. The nearby Jibboom Junkyard was listed on the
National Priorities ListThe National Priorities List is the list of hazardous waste sites in the United States eligible for long-term remedial action financed under the federal Superfund program. Environmental Protection Agency regulations outline a formal process for assessing hazardous waste sites and placing them on...
(NPL) and identified as containing metal contaminants in the soil. After remediation and NPL deletion in 1991, a 2007 review of the site assessed that while the contaminants still persist, their levels remain protective of human health concerns. Similar metal contaminants are found in the Sims Metal Recycling property in the project area. A 2007
Memorandum of understandingA memorandum of understanding is a document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action...
gives DTSC oversight over remediation procedures and ensures the site is remediated to target levels.
The redevelopment phasing has been allotted into five phases; the first phase, infrastructure building, is currently under construction.
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