Hendricks River Logistics restructures terminal services
Written by Heather Ervin
Aerial view of Hendricks River Logistics’ Keokuk, Iowa, terminal.
As coal shipments on U.S. inland waterways continue to decline, terminals at which coal was a primary commodity are having to diversify their business. Hendricks River Logistics, located at Keokuk, Iowa, at Mile 371 on the Mississippi River, recently announced its plan to transform its coal-handling facility into a multimodal terminal that can handle various commodities, including fertilizer, grain, lumber, steel and other dry bulk cargoes via barge, train and truck.
Hendricks River Logistics has 16,000-plus feet of private industry track, fleeting for more than 80 barges, and the new multimodal transloading terminal. The facility also has a 24/7 harbor boat.
The terminal, formerly Orba-Johnson Transhipment, was built in the late 1970s and has since transloaded more than 50 million tons of cargo on 33,000-plus barges and over 435,000 rail cars.
“While we will continue to serve our coal customers’ needs here at Hendricks River Logistics, we are also looking at our future after coal,” says Shawn Duer, general manager. “We feel with the almost 300 acres of available land combined with the basic infrastructure we have in place when it comes to rail and barge, we can transform our business into a premier multimodal transloading facility on the Upper Mississippi River.”
