‘Home ports advantage’ reaps success

QUINCY, Ill. — For thousands of years, waterways have been essential as a food source and transportation means and are now a major avenue for economically and efficiently moving grain and other freight.

Water transportation today is an export and import juggernaut, particularly in the nation’s breadbasket — and the numbers show it.

Bob Sinkler, Corn Belt Ports executive coordinating director, gave an update on the commerce, upgrades and successes since the Midwest ports finally received a federal designation three years ago.

In 2020 and 2021, three “original” Corn Belt Ports in Illinois, Missouri and Iowa were approved and placed on the U.S. ports map. The Northern Grain Belt Ports in Wisconsin and Minnesota followed in December 2022.

The federal port designation opened the doors for funding to upgrade locks and dams, many of which were constructed 90-plus years ago.

“In 2022 and 2023, we received over $2 billion in ‘new’ infrastructure investment from federal and state governments and nonprofit organizations,” said Sinkler in an update cohosted by the University of Illinois Extension Community Economic Development Team and Rural Partners.

“Our goal in 2024 and 2025 is to attract $500 million more in investment while bipartisan infrastructure bill money is still available. We want to make the Corn Belt Ports an enduring entity, focused on protecting the integrity and sustainability of our part of the global supply chain.”

Sinkler noted that just four years ago the Mississippi and Illinois waterways were a “black hole” in terms of not being recognized as ports compared to similar sites of the United States, despite handling about 100 million tons of goods annually.

“We were missing out for years. We just didn’t have the visibility we should have had for our ports,” he said.

Since the port designation, the importance of the Midwest river transportation system has been recognized. Two of Corn Belt Ports were among the top 50 ports in 2022 in the Global Trade publication.

The Mid-America Port Commission with 15 million tons of products — 3 million above the previous year — was ranked 41st in the nation, and the Illinois Waterway Ports was ranked 42nd nationally with 14.9 million tons. The latter was not ranked the previous year.

The Mid-American Ports Commission is a three-state port commission that includes 189 miles of the Upper Mississippi river and 69 miles of the Illinois River and has over 59 public and private terminals. Illinois Waterway Ports are located along the river from Mason to Grundy counties.

“We’re proud of that and we’re also proud of the fact that in January the U.S. Department of Transportation ranked the Mid-America Port and Illinois Waterway Port in the top 25 cargo ports in the United States. That’s a first for both of those,” Sinkler said.

Funding Projects

The region has attracted over $2 billion in federal, state and nonprofit investments in the region since the federal port designation.

Several project upgrades that recently began include improving the navigation mooring cell at Lock and Dam 14 on the Mississippi River near the Quad Cities and a 1,200-foot lock retrofit at Lock and Dam 25 on the Mississippi River at Calhoun County.

Over $700 million has been provided for the Lock and Dam 25 work. The Illinois Waterway Lock Rehabilitation was allocated over $500 million and is projected for completion by the end of October.

“There’s 3,000 construction jobs just associated with the lock rehab work,” Sinkler said.

More than $250 million has been invested in the Brandon Road Invasive Aquatic Species Barrier, over $90 million for Lock 22 fish passage and over $50 million for the LaGrange Lock and Dam retrofit with a 1,200-foot lock design.

“None of this would have been possible with our very strong bipartisan and bicameral regional congressional leadership in both the U.S. House and Senate. We’re really grateful for that,” Sinkler added.

The Illinois General Assembly unanimously passed in both chambers the Illinois Waterway Ports Commission Act in May.

The state of Illinois invested over $1.5 million. It was the largest investment ever in strategic planning from the state.

The funding is for strategic planning for the Havana Regional Port District, Heart of Illinois Regional Port District, City of Henry and Joliet Regional Port District.

“That helps identify new projects or new investment opportunities. We love to see that,” Sinkler said.

Among the missions of the Corn Belt Ports is to give these regional ports both a national identity and a “home ports advantage” to advance regional, economic development and sustainability goals an objectives.

Other goals are to increase the waterway freight, protect the integrity of the Corn Belt’s supply chain and its importance to U.S. agriculture and businesses and raise the area’s profile to attract badly needed — and in many cases long-overdue — federal, state, nonprofit and business organization investment in the regional port areas.

Priorities

Sinkler noted the following priorities going forward:

• Get the LaGrange 1,200-foot lock retrofit under construction in the next two years.

• Get $100 million of river restoration projects planned on the Illinois Waterway.

• Get long-term research monitoring stations in the Quincy and Hannibal area and the Peoria and Ottawa area.

• Attract $500 million in investment over the next two years since there still is infrastructure money available.

“When we started this effort there were only two ports in the entire Upper Mississippi River Basin. Both were in metro areas of greater than 2.5 million people. These urban areas are important, but most of the grain is produced obviously outside the urban area,” Sinkler said.

“So, it’s good to get our agricultural areas on the map as far as a port. There were no ports at all identified on the Illinois Waterway and that doesn’t reflect reality. We want to continue to get the message out there that our ports exist and they’re nationally significant and a critical part of the global supply chain.”