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TRANSPORTATION-
August 2002 by Stephanie Rommel Sidebar-
According to the American Association of Port Authorities, maritime commerce in the U.S. creates more than 13 million jobs and nearly $500 billion a year in personal income. Within the nearly 12,000 miles that constitutes the commercially active inland and intracoastal waterway system, the Ohio River flows. The Ohio has been described as the “Kilowatt Highway” because it remains the quickest and most cost-efficient way to move coal from the mines to a power plant’s boilers. Coal accounts for the largest percentage of the total traffic on the Ohio River system and is critical to the economy of the Ohio Valley and the country as a whole. The 664 miles of the Ohio River that borders Kentucky is indeed a very busy highway. In 2000 almost 298 million tons of commodities (mostly coal, grains, aggregates and petroleum) moved to, from, within and past Kentucky. These commodities had a total value of approximately $50 billion. Coal made up 34 percent of this tonnage followed by grain shipments with 23 percent according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This cargo moves through our inland waterway system at an average savings of $10.67 per ton over the cost of shipping by alternative modes. Research conducted by the Tennessee Valley Authority shows that virtually all American consumers benefit from these lower transportation costs. Barge transport is not only fuel efficient but environmentally prudent. On average, a gallon of fuel allows one ton of cargo to be shipped 59 miles by truck, 202 miles by rail and 514 miles by barge. The Army Corps of Engineers reports that “ inland waterways allow America to realize tremendous savings in fuel consumption, reduced air emissions, reduced traffic congestion, fewer accidents on our rail lines and highways and less noise and disruption in our cities and towns.” Along those 664 miles of the Ohio River are Kentucky ports that contribute greatly to the economic well-being of our Commonwealth. Port of Wurtland
“And, through our handling of raw materials for companies like Great Lakes Mineral and Vesuvius, it just made sense for them to build factories here,” Salyers stated. The Port of Wurtland handles refractory materials such as bauxite, magnasite and brown fussed alumani, but raw and steel-related materials are their biggest products including pig iron, coke and some finished products. Operated by the Corps, the nearby Greenup Locks and Dam are undergoing major repairs and improvements to the main chamber and a 600-foot extension of the auxiliary chamber. Commodity shipments through Greenup Locks have grown substantially from nearly 20 million tons in 1960 to 71,712,021 total tons in 2000. This heavy use and age forced greater reliance on the old, inadequately-sized auxiliary chamber. According to Salyers these renovations will increase the speed of transit through the area and will enable the tonnage to move with fewer bottlenecks, improved efficiency and accommodate future growth of their tonnage, calculated at a yearly increase of five to eight percent.
All of this is paramount, Salyers added, because their area is also a part of the Port of Huntington-Tri-State, which includes the Big Sandy and Kanawha Rivers and the largest U.S. inland river port. These rivers transport large amounts of low-sulfur coal and steam coal. “The Wurtland port is very important to our overall economy and ties in with our plans for Floyd, Carter and Greenup counties,” State Rep. Tanya Pullin said. “The 14.5 mile industrial parkway is being completed and will connect the river port to the EastPark Regional Industrial Park, U.S. 23 and I-64.” Needing to boost the area’s economy, civic leaders wanted to attract new and diverse industry. The Ashland Alliance was created to promote a spirit of cooperation within their small region, and to also work together with their tri-state neighbors, Ohio and West Virginia, such as the Tri-ED does in Northern Kentucky. “We’re on our way,” says Jim Purgerson, president of the Ashland Alliance. “Our alliance is only three years old but now both business and government are working together. Our biggest project is the 1,000-acre EastPark. This regional industrial park is becoming a reality through the cooperative efforts of Boyd, Carter, Elliot, Greenup and Lawrence counties.” Consequently, the Port of Wurtland will be a truly intermodal facility with major rail, truck and water transport systems close by to industrial parks and neighboring states. Louisville and
Jefferson County Riverport Authority
McFall explained that in order to aid in marketing their port they foster a network of close relationships with national developers, the Lexington Coal Exchange, utility companies, the Kentucky Economic Development Cabinet and the Louisville Greater Chamber of Commerce. As with the other locks and dams along Kentucky’s border, the McAlpine Locks and Dam, located near downtown Louisville, is undergoing major construction. Total lock tonnage for 2000 at McAlpine was 55,790,213 tons. A new 110-foot by 1200-foot lock is scheduled for completion in 2007 at a cost of $268 million. “One 1,200-foot lock could handle traffic most of the time,” McFall said, “but there were times it couldn’t. And, when that one 1,200-foot lock had to be closed for maintenance, it cost the industry astronomical time and money. We’re optimistic now our freight will increase in the future as we strive to serve the needs of our customers. ” Owensboro Riverport
Authority Maurice Owen, port director, said, “We are a diversified, complete intermodal facility and can handle break-bulk or bulk products.” As a U.S. Customs Port of Entry the Owensboro River Port is also becoming a leader in the handling and storage of primary and secondary aluminum with more than 200,000 net tons stored there. The New York Mercantile Exchange has approved the Owensboro Riverport as one of only two licensed warehouses to serve as the delivery point of prime aluminum traded on its COMEX Division aluminum futures contract. Besides aluminum, Owensboro handles steel, zinc, magnesium, grain, fertilizer, paper and other cargo. Owen stated, “I think there is tremendous opportunity here as we have grown our business over the past two years. The waterways are the most efficient means of transportation and a rich resource for this state and can be capitalized on.” Paducah-McCracken
Co. Riverport Authority
The majority of the tonnage going through the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport is sand, limestone, fertilizer, petroleum and coke with a lesser amount of steel, wire and reinforcing rods. With 12 employees, the port is self-operating with bulk capacity warehousing of 20,000 square feet; general cargo capacity is 40,000 square feet with 15 acres of open storage. They also own a grain facility that they lease out. Because of geography, the Paducah port is easily accessible to major markets via CSX or truck, and a customer’s products are within one day’s ground transportation of 65 percent of the U.S. population. There are also 18 towboat operators on the Paducah riverfront providing service. Ground was broken in 1996 on Olmsted Locks and Dam near Paducah to replace Locks and Dam 52 and 53 with a single facility of twin 110-foot by 1,200-foot lock chambers and a submersible dam for a total cost of $1 billion. The entire project is scheduled to be completed by 2009. In 2000 Lock and Dam 53 handled 89,179,080 total tons of cargo.
“We lost it about eight or nine years ago, and we wanted it reestablished. But, all we got was a ‘position’ approved for someone to work closely with waterways and railways in Frankfort. And, as of now that position has not been filled,” he said. That position evidently falls under the auspices of the Department of Intermodal Planning within the Department of Transportation, said Mark Freer, sales and marketing manager of Owensboro Riverport Authority. “Louisiana, Mississippi and other states all have better programs where dollars are put back into waterways and their development. Kentucky has limited state funding in comparison.” Canter said, “If someone in manufacturing and industry looks seriously at the economic, environmental and low congestion advantages of transportation by water, then they will realize it is the transportation mode for large quantities for years to come.”
Stephanie Rommel
is a staff writer for The Lane Report. |
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Copyright 1996-2002, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2002, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
For
trivia buffs the question is: What state within the contiguous United
States has the most miles of navigable waterways? Of course, it’s
Kentucky, with almost 1,100 miles. Only Alaska outranks us.
“It
took 18 months to build the port,” said Don Salyers, president
and CEO of Combined Terminals. With 25 employees, Combined Terminals
has over 150,000 square feet of warehousing space for customers. Not
only do they service a big portion of their region but they ship as
far away as Canada.
In
the 1960s, the Corps began modernizing the locks on the Ohio River.
Currently, there are 10 active projects to make transit faster and more
efficient as many of these locks and dams are at the end of their design
lives. Most of today’s tows operate with 12 or usually 15 barges,
so passing through a 600-foot lock requires the tow to be “cut”
into two sections in order to pass. It’s a costly and very time-consuming
process. 
But,
Louisville’s port is a little different than the other Kentucky
ports, according to its president, Larry McFall. “The port itself
is under contract with Cooper/T. Smith Corporation of Mobile, Alabama
to operate the port for us as well as help market it. Originally established
back in 1840, the Cooper/T. Smith stevedoring company employs thousands
at over 38 U.S. ports and maintains the equipment and ability to handle
any type of cargo.
“Our
customer base has changed, however,” said Ken Canter, port director.
“Over the last three years we have been stagnant. Western Kentucky
is not growing industrially – just in the service sector.”
As
president of the Kentucky Association of Riverports, Canter commented
that there was one important matter that he and the group had tried
to accomplish during this past year. That was the reestablishment of
a Ports Commission at the state level to provide a venue for funding,
grants and low-interest loans.