Operations at a recently opened barge port along the Mississippi River in Herculaneum are humming along at a faster clip than anticipated.
“We’ve been busy,” said Mark Denton, manager of the site. “We’ve probably handled over 100,000 tons since we started. It’s exceeded our expectations.”
The port opened in September but does not yet have a business permit from the city of Herculaneum. A request for a permit is on the Monday night (Jan. 13) agenda for the Herculaneum Board of Aldermen.
The developer is Riverview Commerce Park (RCP) LLC, which signed a lease-purchase agreement early last year with the Doe Run Co. for the 18 acres where the barge port is situated.
Denton manages the port for RCP, which is a partnership of St. Louis-based Environmental Operations Inc., J.H. Berra Construction and Fred Weber Inc.
“The business license, to be honest, was an oversight,” Denton said. “With all the permits and plans we had to put in place for this over the last year, we just didn’t think about a business permit. And the city never mentioned it. Someone (from the city) called me a couple of weeks ago and told me about it, so I went over to City Hall to fill out the paperwork and pay them the $15 for the license.”
He said before barges started loading at the site in early September, RCP completed an overhaul of the former Doe Run port to the tune of more than $2 million.
“We put in five conveyor belts,” he said.
Four of the belts will be used to load material while the fifth can be used to unload, he said.
“We also put in a winch system for about $135,000 to pull barges back and forth,” he said.
He said five or six workers from Fred Weber are stationed at the port.
“On a typical day, we can start loading at about 4 a.m., and they load one or two barges a day on average,” Denton said. “They’re there until 3 or 4 p.m., although some days, especially when they’re also loading rail cars, they can be there until 7 p.m. or so.
He said the port has been operating up to seven days a week when needed.
He said the Union Pacific Railroad recently upgraded a rail spur in the area, which has improved rail access.
“We’ve been busy,” he said. “We’ve probably handled over 100,000 tons since we started. It’s exceeded our expectations.”
Mississippi Sand LLC, Kirkwood, is the sole client of the port so far, Denton said.
The company has a sand plan in unincorporated Jefferson County near St. Pius High School in Crystal City. The company sells sand to the oil and gas service industry, according to its website.
“While I’m not at liberty to discuss it now, we anticipate having another contract soon, perhaps within the next month or so,” he said.
Denton said he’s not concentrating on expanding the port’s footprint past the 18 acres it now occupies.
“RCP is still hopeful for, after Doe Run closes, getting involved using some of the rest of the (plant’s) 300 acres, but I’m not sure what the status of that is. My job is to manage this 18 acres,” he said.
“Right now, we’d like people to know that we’re in business, and we’ll hopefully grow from here. I know this doesn’t sound glamorous – it’s not like putting 700 people to work – but it’s a little piece of what hopefully will be a bigger puzzle.”