Railroad company CSX and Florida State College at Jacksonville are partnering to create the CSX Hazardous Materials Training Institute near the college’s South Jacksonville campus.
Online research finds that the institute will focus on training first responders to handle rail-related hazardous materials emergencies.
The city issued a permit July 29 for site clearing and to build railroad tracks on FSCJ-owned property at 2700 Fire Fighter Memorial Drive. Cranemasters is the contractor for the $358,840 project on property north of the campus.
Cranemasters, based in North Chesterfield, Virginia, provides railroad emergency and construction services.
The site is north of the campus and south of the college’s Fire Academy of the South, which trains emergency responders in the public and private sectors. Training there ranges from basic skills to advanced education and technical training, including shipboard and aircraft rescue firefighting.
Wooded land is to the east and west.
The campus is at northeast Beach Boulevard and Interstate 295.
Infrastructure consultants Arcadis of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Arcadis US of Hanover, Maryland, are associated with the project.
Enviro Science Inc. of Plant City is an environmental consultant.
Arcadis applied to the St. Johns River Water Management District in April on behalf of FSCJ to modify 3.64 acres to accommodate three rows of railroad tracks that are 400 feet in length.
The district issued a letter June 18, 2025, modifying the permit for site improvements to include the three rows of railroad tracks; one row of 120 feet of track at the northeast entrance of a roundabout; access paths; installation of grates; relocation of a highway cargo tank, propane tank and compressed gas; and more. The area will be covered with ballast.
All railroad tracks will be installed with the standards of CSX Transportation Inc., the operating railroad part of the business.
The project is described as a mock railroad firefighting training facility.
FSCJ Chief Communications Officer Jill Johnson said July 31 that the college will “build on our partnership with CSX” and looks “ahead to the opportunities this collaboration will create.”
CSX had no comment.
FSCJ already posts at fscj.edu that it offers a Hazardous Materials Specialist Technical Certificate that trains students to enter careers involved with the investigation and remediation of uncontrolled hazardous waste sites as well as response to an accident involving hazardous materials.
Graduates are expected to identify methods and procedures for recognizing, evaluating and controlling hazardous substances and also learn to identify appropriate regulations and action levels to ensure worker health and safety.
Graduates put into practice government regulations and compliance and maintain records required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation.
FSCJ says the advisory board includes CSX, JEA, OSHA, DOT, the Army Corps of Engineers and St. Johns River Water Management District and others.