Cairo, IL: Alexander-Cairo Port District

safe_image for Illinois pledges $40 million to construct new Alexander-Cairo port
About 80 percent of all inland barge traffic in the U.S. passes Cairo every year.
[Note how high the river level is. I hope this funding decision has not been made by the same people that still think Chicagoland needs an airport near Peotone. Illinois already has a white elephant that proves that "if you build it, they will come" is not true.]

A web site gives the address as 1100 Commercial Avenue. But that looks like the office, not the port. The port district act was passed in 2010 [ilga], but not much has happened in a decade. For the sake of the town, I do hope this port is not a white elephant.

I found several repeats of the $40m press release. They had photos of people in masks, but no site information. After speculating where it might be along the Ohio River, I finally found that it will be along the Mississippi River. So, dear reader, I deleted my speculations so that I don't waste your time.

WSIU, cropped

One of my speculations does appear to be correct. The port can handle just bulk materials that can be conveyed or piped over the flood wall. But it can't handle barges that would need cranes to load and unload them. But bulk-only cargo is probably not an issue because the economics of barge traffic favors just bulk cargo. I'm more concerned that they think there will be coal traffic. Illinois has seen closures of coal docks. If they had labeled that "blob" as aggregates (e.g. crushed limestone), salt, etc., I would have been more confidant that the planners knew what they were doing. Another red flag is that they are using ladder tracks rather than a track loop. Since there is a terminal railway, Shawnee Terminal Railway, maybe the efficiency of handling a unit train is not an issue because CN won't be operating the trains.

Update:

safe_image for New agreement could make Cairo, Illinois’ port a model for 21st century container shipping

Jeff Lewis

The ship in the illustration is carrying around 600 40' containers, which equal 1200 TEUs. That's equal to a double stack train with 300 well cars, about 18,000 feet. The ship they speak of in the article would be twice the size as the one in the illustration. That's a bigass ship to heading up and down the winding Mississippi at a rate faster than a large of barges. I don't see how they're going to beat the transit time of train between Cairo and Baton Rouge. Or even three trains.

Dan Gurley

Jeff Lewis they won't ever beat the time. Cost savings will be the angle they use.

Jeff Lewis  

Also, I don't see why CN would see much value in handing off business to a competitor. No doubt they'd be happy to take containers from Cairo to Chicago, but I suspect this port will be handing off containers to short haul trucking firms headed to St Louis, Nashville and Indianapolis.

Ted Gregory

The goal is Prince Rupert, BC 

Jeff . CN has done similar to Indianapolis with Indiana RR.

Karl Krueger

Will the ship[s] fit through the locks.

Dennis DeBruler

There are no locks downstream from Cairo. That is why the tows are typically 45 barges instead of just 15.