Marine Highway grant will fund key element of Jeffersonville barge shuttle project

Written by Nick Blenkey
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Port of Indiana - Jffersonville

The Ports of Indiana says that $545,145 awarded it in the latest round of MARAD Marine Highway grants will support a $778,766 barge shuttle project for Nucor Steel underway at its Jeffersonville port.

The project includes construction of a 1.2-acre outdoor storage area and the purchase of a forklift to be used for handling steel coils. The planned barge shuttle storage facility was developed with Nucor Steel to allow the barge shipment of coils from Ghent, Ky., to the Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville. Project partners also include Watco Co., Campbell Transportation Co., Voss Clark, Mill Steel and OKI Regional Council of Governments, who served as the original Marine Highway Project sponsor.

“This grant funds a critical component of a new barge shuttle service that will allow Nucor to better utilize our Jeffersonville port’s cargo handling facilities to serve customers and to grow future business,” said Ports of Indiana Senior Vice President Jody Peacock. “We’re grateful for MARAD’s support of this project and believe there are more opportunities to expand this barge shuttle to additional ports in the future.”

The outdoor laydown area and the forklift will be used to unload truckloads of coils from the dock, and load trucks for just-in-time delivery to customers.

Ports of Indiana is providing the local funding match and will manage the grant administration.

“We’re excited to partner with Nucor and our family of port companies to develop this project,” said Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville Port Director Jeff Miles. “This port provides critical multimodal connections for steel shipments and steel processors in the Midwest. We have 13 steel-related companies on-site that make our ‘Steel Campus’ a key transportation hub for U.S. steel producers, automakers and manufacturing facilities.”

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