WINTER HAVEN | Information on jobs and business opportunities for the much-anticipated CSX rail terminal will be available at an open house at the Chain of Lakes Complex in Winter Haven on May 3, according to a release on the city of Winter Haven's Facebook page.
Information on job opportunities, business opportunities and the project overall will be available to the public at the open house.
The open house is sponsored by Polk Works, the city of Winter Haven, TransDevelop Group and Evansville Western Railway, the CSX subsidiary that will build the site.
The open house will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Chain of Lakes gymnasium at 210 Cypress Gardens Blvd.
Construction on the Pollard Road extension, which will be the main road into the business park and rail terminal, has already begun.
CSX officials have said construction on the rail terminal will begin in the middle or second half of 2012.
The Winter Haven rail terminal is needed to handle freight train traffic moving from Orlando-area rail lines to the line that runs through Polk County and downtown Lakeland.
Evansville Western Railway has said it expects to create 800 construction-related jobs during the initial construction and plans to work with Polk Works to hire additional help.
The company also plans to use Polk County suppliers and subcontractors when possible.
Estimates for the project's total jobs impact have been as high as 6,000, counting jobs at the rail terminal and at a business park to be built on 932 acres around the terminal.
Some Lakeland and Wahneta residents have opposed the new rail terminal because they said the increased freight train traffic running through Polk County will decrease their quality of life.
CSX will still utilize the rail lines SunRail will use, but only when SunRail is not operating.
Residents in Winter Haven who live near the proposed site also have voiced concerns about the amount of noise from the rail terminal and added traffic on nearby roads.
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