Northstar Transloading

A multi-commodity inbound/outbound railroad and trucking transload terminal owned and operated by NorthStar Transloading (NST) serving the Bakken oil region of North Dakota. It is an engineer/procure/construct (EPC) project by Strobel/Starostka Construction, with Merrick and Company performing shop drawing reviews for NST and Ulteig performing resident project representative functions (RPR) to assist in observing the progress and quality of the project.

Primary commodities handled

• Crude oil
• Proppant (man-made ceramic sand)
• Sand

Size

• 400 acres
• 2 miles long
• 16 rail tracks (over 12 miles)

Capacities

• 5 103,000-barrel crude tanks
• 12 tanker trucks able to offload at a time
• 20 rail cars able to be loaded at a time
• 1 unit train per day (109-120 cars per train)
• 6 2,500-ton natural sand silos

Project challenges

• Road reconstruction for added heavy traffic
• Modifications to irrigation canals and drainage ditches running through project site
• Multiple state, county, utility and private stakeholders

Future expansion capabilities

• 20-mile oil pipeline from Alexander, N.D., for crude transfer
• Interconnect pipelines
• Add-on to the load barn for an additional 20 load arms
• Additional natural sand facility
• Additional rail tracks, warehouses, crude tanks

Client comment
“Merrick and Ulteig were retained by NST Transload Operating Company to review shop drawings and assist with onsite monitoring of construction activities in relation to NST’s greenfield East Fairview rail and truck transportation hub. The Ulteig and Merrick teams’ continued valuable contribution is expected to result in an on-time and on-budget delivery of this very fast-track project.”

• Brian Jenson, COO of NorthStar Midstream