The Pine Bluff-Jefferson County Port Authority on Friday approved advertising for bids for a rail rehabilitation project at the port, using funds from the Arkansas Waterways Commission’s Port, Intermodal and Waterway Development Grant program for fiscal year 2017.
The application, which was submitted last year, calls for refurbishing hundreds of feet of rail spur traffic serving the public barge, rail/truck terminal at the port”s Harbor Industrial District. The application also said that the rail spurs were originally built in 1969 and have been partially refurbished over the past years, but now are in need of a complete rehabilitation project to serve the rail customer base in the district.
In August 2016, board chairman David Bush was authorized to apply for a grant and asked for a total of $280,715. The port authority actually received $163,833, and according to a summary of the work to be performed, the work should be completed and be fully operational by April 30, 2017.
The board also approved Mike Murphy, who is the terminal manager for WATCO, the private company that operates the port, to assist with the oversight of the work/verification.
In his report, Murphy said more that 65 tons of products were handled at the port last year, a figure which exceeded 2015 figures by more than six tons. He attributed part of that to more than 32,000 tons of steel wire rod coins destined for Kiswire, and to a new contract with a fertilizer company that shipped in almost 12,000 tons of vermiculete in 2016.
Murphy also proudly showed off pictures of improvements to the terminal infrastructure, paid for by KinderMorgan, which operated the terminal until 2015, and to Watco, which acquired the facility from KinderMorgan. Those improvements and added equipment exceeded $1.6 million.
Lou Ann Nisbett, the executive director of the Port Authority, reported that a local company completed the purchase of 12 acres at the port on Dec. 16, but company officials are not ready to make a public announcement of their plans for the property.