The development of the Arkansas River into a modern, year-round barge navigation route to import and export products from the nation’s mid-continent is one of the country’s finest engineering feats.
The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System provides a 448-mile channel from the Mississippi River northwest to a point 15 miles east of Tulsa, Okla., on the Verdigris River. The project includes 17 locks and dams, lifting the river a total of 420 feet. The channel is 200 feet wide, with a minimum depth of nine feet, enabling fully loaded barges to navigate the water during the entire year. In 2007, the Congress authorized a deepening of the navigation channel to 12 feet.
All along this 448-mile navigable waterway are opportunities for major heavy industry to take advantage of low-cost, bulk transportation facilities. Major movements on the river include petroleum products, sand and gravel, coal, wheat and soybeans, steel, stone, pipe, aluminum and chemicals.
The Little Rock Port Authority provides a 2,550-acre heavy industrial park connected to two full-service river terminals and a switching railroad. The Port Railroad connects the industrial park and river trade cargo with the Union Pacific Railroad and the BNSF Railway systems. Both Class I lines provide daily service into the Port’s own marshalling yard. These full-service public terminals offer all industry in the Port and adjacent sites the opportunity
to ship by barge. The terminals are equipped to handle almost any product, therefore allowing a cost-effective, efficient mode of transportation.
Little Rock has the designation as Foreign Trade Zone – 14. This zone is in the Little Rock Port Industrial Park and encompasses the entire port. A 104,000-square-foot commercial warehouse structure is dedicated to the Foreign Trade Zone. Sub-zones of FTZ #14 are located across the state of Arkansas.
The Little Rock Port Authority, Fred I. Brown Slackwater Harbor, is an excellent attribute of the port. This safe harbor is 4,500 feet long, 300 feet wide and 15 feet deep. It allows barges to get off the main current of the river into the zero current of the harbor for loading and offloading. The harbor is surrounded by developed land ready for occupancy by heavy industrial users.
Little Rock is a U.S. Customs Port of Entry for freight with customs officials on call. The Little Rock Port Authority therefore facilitates import and export of products while providing an efficient manufacturing location for heavy industry.
The Port of Little Rock has invested over $22 million in upgraded infrastructure in the Slackwater Harbor and Industrial Park, including drainage, a new dock, new warehouses, Interstate capable roads, water and sewer service, and construction of rail throughout the Harbor. Also completed is a new bulk products pier. In 2007, the Port's railroad underwent a $5 million reconstruction of existing track and
an expansion of the marshalling yard to accommodate future industrial growth.
The Port has received more than $350 million in investment from new plant locations and expansions within the last three years. To help accommodate this growth, a $2.6 million overhead crane is planned for construction on the Slackwater Harbor dock in 2010 to handle additional cargo, especially heavy coils and steel products.
For more information, Joey Dean (Vice President, Economic Development; Executive Director, Metro Little Rock Alliance), 501.377.6006.