Little Rock Port Authority Executive Director Bryan Day sees "limitless potential" for attracting new business to the port once upgrades are made to its slackwater harbor.
Day made the comments after an event Monday detailing a $6.2 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant to help fund the harbor upgrades. Port officials, as part of their application for the funding announced Thursday, estimated that as many as a "dozen new customers were lost because existing facilities were inadequate."
The total cost of the project will be about $10 million. An estimated $75 million in upgrades have been identified as part of a five-year port improvement plan if funding can be secured. No timeline for the slackwater harbor upgrades has been set, but the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery funding will allow for those upgrades to take priority.
"What the impact fully means is unknown. The impact is limitless, I believe," Day said. "What it could mean for the port is it opens up a whole bunch of markets for materials and commodities we currently can't handle. ... We can do some of it now, but not very well. So this is a big deal."
Day said the port will be able to better handle shipping containers and materials such as liquids and agriculture products, including grain. Used at full capacity, the rail-to-barge capabilities could remove more than 14,000 trucks per year from roadways, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said.
Improvements planned to the slackwater harbor include extending Intermodal Loop Road by 700 feet, adding 30,000 square feet of warehouse space and connecting existing railroads to an 1,800-foot spur to allow for barge-to-rail transfer. An estimated 50 percent more freight will be handled at the harbor, which can handle approximately 330 barges this year.
Arkansas Waterways Commission Executive Director Gene Higginbotham said the project, once complete, will create additional job opportunities. Better rail-to-barge capacity is a selling point for industries considering the state.
"People are realizing the river is a tool they can use," Higginbotham said. "It's certainly a tool that benefits the state from an economic development standpoint."
Little Rock's slackwater harbor is a 4,500-foot-long, 15-foot-deep inland channel. The harbor has a 190-foot dock and turning basin used by barges to get on and off the river.
The Port Authority estimates that since 2010, the port has had a $5 billion economic impact on central Arkansas. That impact could increase if companies choose to take advantage of the slackwater harbor improvements. More than 40 businesses are located at the port.
In 2013, about 12.1 million tons of freight with a value of $3.85 billion moved through the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, according to a 2014 study. The system spans 308 miles in Arkansas and 137 miles in Oklahoma.
U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., said 585 public entities submitted applications for the grant. Those applications represented more than $9 billion worth of need, and "not even 10 percent were accepted."
"They are so competitive," Hill of Little Rock said of securing the funding. "I can't tell you what a big compliment that is. We are doing something right in central Arkansas when it comes to economic development and economic growth."
Day said the Port Authority is still evaluating its options for funding the additional $4 million. Among the options being considered is the issuing of bonds, something the entity is authorized to do.
Currently the port has no debt.
"'No debt' is huge for any port," Day said. "When you have the right project and the interest rates are favorable as they are today, this might be the project to issue some debt. Those are some of the conversations we'll be having in the near future."
Business on 08/16/2016