Elko County broke ground this week on a multimillion-dollar rail and truck loading facility that officials hope will help to broaden the region's economy beyond its gold-mining base.
The 100-acre Northeastern Nevada Regional Railport is being built on the 811-acre Ellison Ranch bought in May by the county about six miles east of Elko off Interstate 80 on the Union Pacific railroad line.
Also to come: an adjacent industrial park serving the region and the West.
When the railport opens, as hoped in a year or two, Elko will become the transportation hub of the region between Reno to the west and Salt Lake City to the east, officials said.
Add in the industrial park, and the project could produce up to 1,500 jobs in the coming years, said Elaine Barkdull, executive director of the Elko County Economic Diversification Authority.
"It's going to diversify our economy away from mining so we'll no longer be dependent just on mining," she said.
Added Tim Rubald, executive director of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, "This could really turn the corner for northeastern Nevada."
Elko County paid $2.1 million for the ranch, and Barkdull said it will take at least $4.5 million more to build the railport.
The Nevada Legislature last year chipped in with $1 million over two years, and Barkdull said Union Pacific is providing switches and other needs.
She said the project will be financed by the sale of municipal bonds to be paid off through the sale of land for the industrial park, and the county will lease operations to a outside entity.
She said the "trans-loading" facility will offer speedy transfer -- a top priority for the railroad -- of goods from trucks to trains and vice versa.
"They're encouraging us to do this," she said. "They want to get trains up and down the track as fast as possible. If you can stop a train just once, it means the world to the railroad industry."
Rubald likened the railport to a shipyard with cranes moving containers about.
"The railroad wants 'velocity' on their rails," he said. "They don't want to stop a train for three cars. They want to back up to 70 cars and go."
Barkdull said the site is ideal: affordable, flat land, an existing frontage road (old Highway 40) and freeway access at Osino, and plenty of water for potential manufacturing endeavors in the industrial park.
"Elko has gone from a large mining town that's now becoming a small city," she said.
"If we're to continue to prosper, we have to diversify. We have to define our new niche to encourage different businesses to come our way."