Governor Rick Scott speaks at the Crawford Diamond Industrial Park Mega-site Certification ceremony in Crawford, Nassau County, FLA

The Crawford Diamond Industrial Park, Florida's second mega-site, was certified today in a grand ceremony attended by many federal, state and local dignitaries including Governor Rick Scott. The 1,800 acre site, owned by Rayonier's Terra Pointe, is served by two Class I railroads, CSX and Norfolk Southern (NS), which is a rarity in the State of Florida. Located at Milepost 243.7 on the NS's Valdosta-Jacksonville line and Milepost 15.6 on CSX's Callahan-Baldwin Sub, the newly certified commerce center is now one of the top industrial sites in America. Steve Reich, Executive Director of the Nassau County Development Board, and others have been hard at work getting Crawford Diamond ready and open for business. Although the first shovel of dirt has officially been turned, officials are still working in earnest in getting new businesses to relocate to the site. The site is designed to hold 10.5 million square feet of warehouse space, which will mean more trains and jobs for Nassau County, FLA.  For more info, check out the  link to the Florida governor's official web site below.

http://www.flgov.com/2013/06/11/governor-scott-celebrates-important-megasite-certification-in-nassau-county/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=governor-scott-celebrates-important-megasite-certification-in-nassau-county

Also, a link to the story at the Fort Mills (SC) Times:
http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2013/06/11/2752276/nassau-county-industrial-site.html

Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the crowd of about a hundred dignitaries and guests at today's celebration of the Crawford Diamond Industrial Park Mega-site certification.

Rayonier's President, Chairman and CEO Paul Boynton holds up the Mega-site certificates with Lindsey Myers, a representative of MaCallum Sweeney Consulting Firm at the Crawford Diamond ceremony.

Certification by MaCallum Sweeney of Greenville, South Carolina, means the 1800 acre mega site 4 miles south of Callahan, Nassau County, FLA, is open for business.

After the ceremony, Governor Scott speaks to reporters as Norfolk Southern (NS) locomotive 5826 sits in the background on the Valdosta-Jacksonville line. NS's Operation Lifesaver engine made a solo trip from Jacksonville to serve as a reminder of their commitment to the Crawford Diamond project and will vie for future rail business that the new industrial complex will bring to the area.

NS locomotive 5826 showed up from Jacksonville showed up as a backdrop to the festivities.  Both NS and CSX are committed to making the Crawford Diamond succeed. 

As the ceremony begins, an NS inter modal pulled by three locomotives (NS 9542 and NS 9000 and NS 2614) races by the newly certified mega-site  as it approaches the Crawford diamond with CSX on it way to Jacksonville. The embankment between the track and Crawford Road had just recently been cleared of most of the trees and underbrush especially for this occasion. Plans to pave Crawford Road from US 301 in Crawford, Nassau County, FLA, westward to CR 2 and the Georgia-Florida Line has been moved up to very near future.