Construction is moving along at a quick pace along Route 58 near Kenyon Road, where CenterPoint Properties has begun building what one day is expected to be a massive new complex of warehouses and distribution centers moving products in and out of Suffolk bound to and from Virginia’s port facilities.

The implications of the project were always a bit staggering. Hundreds of new jobs were promised, millions of dollars in construction costs would be paid, thousands of vehicles would be added to the roads every day, tens of millions of dollars in highway improvements would eventually be necessary. And with the potential for even bigger ships to load and unload in Portsmouth with the completion soon of the project to widen the Panama Canal, all of those numbers are likely to be even larger than anyone expected.

For many people, the argument in favor of approving the development was a simple one: jobs. And the employment situation in Suffolk and the surrounding area has not improved since CenterPoint announced its desire to locate in Suffolk. In fact, many of the people who originally complained that the intermodal commerce center would provide only relatively low-paying blue collar jobs have found themselves forced into midlife career changes by companies that downsized to survive the recession. Some of those former opponents are likely to wind up as applicants when companies begin hiring on the CenterPoint site.

To help folks in the area get themselves qualified for this new line of work, Valley Proteins, whose rendering plant in western Southampton County has a healthy distribution model of its own, has awarded Paul D. Camp Community College’s Workforce Development Center a $10,000 grant, which the college will use to expand its already popular warehousing and distribution operations training program.

Participants in the program can earn career studies certificates that go a long way toward showing an employer that a job candidate has what it takes to be a good employee in a new field.

Such opportunities will be increasingly important to the folks in Suffolk and Western Tidewater who wish to take advantage of the new employment opportunities that present themselves with the completion of the CenterPoint project. And such well-trained employees will be increasingly important to the companies that locate within the new complex.

Expanding the college’s training program is a winning idea for everyone involved. The folks at Valley Protein should be commended for their generosity.