Urban joined hundreds of business people, government officials, and refinery workers in South Philadelphia to cut the ribbon on Philadelphia Energy Solutions’ (PES) new state-of-the-art rail car unloading facility.

The facility has become a key player in the energy market as the single largest consumer of crude oil from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota. Just over a year ago, PES’ decision to enter into a joint venture with Sunoco, Inc. and the Carlyle Group kept the 140-year-old former Sunoco refinery in operation and provided the future location for this new world-class rail car unloading facility. According to PES, the business move also saved 850 jobs, secured the region’s fuel supply by continuing the daily flow of 10 million gallons of various fuels, and created 100-200 new, permanent jobs, as well as thousands of construction jobs.

Urban provided permitting assistance to PES and stormwater drainage design for the new facility. The overall project consisted of: constructing a crude rail car unloading facility in the Point Breeze North Yard capable of unloading 14 unit trains per week; refurbishing of temporarily out-of-service crude tanks; installing pumps and pipelines; and ancillary support facilities enabling the refinery to maximize the use of Bakken Crude to both the Point Breeze and Girard Point operating facilities.

By working closely with the various City and State Departments, Urban’s regulatory compliance experts were able to expedite required construction permits keeping the project steadily moving forward. One of unique components of the project was the capture and transfer of several red-bellied turtles, a threatened and endangered species in Pennsylvania. These turtles had GPS locators attached to their shells and were safely released back to the Schuylkill River were they are now part of a one-year habitat study.