Some big lifts for the $400 million Melbourne Intermodal Terminal

Proudly backed by Aware Super, the 45-hectare MIT in the city’s busy industrial north is the largest facility of its type in Victoria, including featuring more than 30 hectares of concrete terminal hardstands – equivalent to 14 MCG AFL football fields.

ITC CEO Mishkel Maharaj said: “Governments have long called for Australian superannuation funds
to increase investment in critical productive domestic infrastructure and the MIT is a prime example of this being the case.

“In a great boost to the MIT, our company welcomes the recent release of the Victorian Freight Plan 2025-30 which lists as a priority action the need for the Department of Transport and Planning to continue to work with the ITC to support the delivery of the intermodal terminal at Somerton1.” 

The MIT at Somerton will provide much needed additional rail capacity to Victoria from October
this year.

In another big lift for the project, the MIT will initially be serviced by seven rail mounted gantry cranes – supplied by Konecranes – four in the Inner Terminal, followed by three in the Outer Terminal. These gantry cranes will enable the MIT to process one million shipping containers (TEUs) each year.

As import/export (IMEX: port shuttle) and interstate TEU volumes grow at the MIT, the overall project design allows for a total of 12 gantry cranes to be in service in the future (i.e. six in the Inner Terminal, six in the Outer Terminal).

The infrastructure, hardstand footprint and equipment at the MIT will allow the terminal to have sufficient capacity to handle Victoria’s interstate rail freight demand – including future volumes generated via the Inland Rail – until the late 2050s.

Each gantry crane is 25-metres in height and weights 350-tonnes and can lift/load up to 46 shipping containers (TEUs) each hour.

Mr Maharaj continued: “the gantry cranes are fully electric and can regenerate electricity back into the grid via the kinetic process of lifting and loading containers.

“The MIT will be Australia’s most state-of-the-art intermodal terminal and will also feature an open access regime, customs-bonded storage, an empty container park, and on-site facilities to wash, fumigate and repair shipping containers.”

“The MIT will help increase utilisation of the existing ARTC interstate network and future Melbourne-Brisbane Inland Rail by enabling rail freight services to reach closer to Melbourne’s existing key industrial and logistics precincts, thereby reducing last mile truck movements.” he explained.

“For example, The MIT is currently surrounded by approximately 20 per cent of Victoria’s freight
volumes with more than three million square metres of existing warehousing within a seven-kilometre radius of the terminal. Furthermore, with the completion of the North East Link, a further 25 per cent of freight volumes (from the South East) will be able to seamlessly access the MIT.”

By rail, the MIT is only 20-kilometres from Australia’s largest maritime trade hub the Port of Melbourne and is directly adjacent to the Hume Freeway.

Mr Maharaj said: “MIT offers the best of both worlds in that it allows interstate rail services to arrive closer to the port and existing major freight precincts whilst removing the need for heavy freight trucks to drive towards the Melbourne CBD.

“This helps to boost productivity by reducing the time trucks spend in traffic and the required distance trucks need to travel for first/last mile operations. In turn, this helps to reduce supply chain costs, traffic congestion, road damage and accidents, and vehicle emissions,” he said.

The MIT is a central component to an even larger development by Aware Real Estate and Barings to deliver the Melbourne Intermodal & Industrial Exchange (MIIX).

Mr Maharaj added, “For the first time in Victoria, the MIT will provide precinct tenants the benefits of co-located warehousing and related logistical services. Together, the MIT and the MIIX represent a $1.6 billion investment – the largest private investment in Victoria’s freight and logistics sector in a generation.”

In any given week, current construction activities at the MIT employ up to 200 skilled Victorian workers. Once operational, the intermodal terminal will employ approximately 60 essential freight workers, including train crews, truck drivers, forklift operators, freight controllers and dispatchers, and warehouse technicians.
The MIT and MIIX directly align with aims and objectives of key federal and state projects and plans, including the National Rail Action Plan, future Melbourne-Brisbane Inland Rail, 2023 Critical Infrastructure Resilience Strategy, and Victorian Freight Plan. Safe and cost-efficient rail supply chains help to underpin the success.