BusIness GuIde

PORT DEVELOPMENTECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTRiver, Port, Foreign Trade Zone OfferPrime Manufacturing LocationThe development of the Arkansas River into a modern, year-round barge navigation route is one of the country’s finest engineering feats.The development of the Arkansas River into a modern,year-round barge navigation route to importand export products from the nation’s mid-sectionis one of the country’s finest engineering feats.The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River NavigationSystem provides a 448-mile channel from theMississippi River northwest to a point 15 mileseast of Tulsa, Okla., on the Verdigris River. Theproject includes 17 locks and dams, lifting theriver 420 feet. The channel is 200 feet wide, witha minimum depth of nine feet, enabling fullyloaded barges to navigate the water during theentire year. In 2007, Congress authorized a deepeningof the navigation channel to 12 feet.All along this 448-mile navigable waterway areopportunities for major heavy industry to takeadvantage of low-cost, bulk transportation facilities.Major movements on the river included petroleumproducts, sand and gravel, coal, wheat and soybeans,steel, stone, pipe, aluminum and chemicals.The Little Rock Port Authority provides a 2,400-acre industrial park for heavy industry that is connectedto two full-service river terminals and aswitching railroad. The Port Railroad connectsthe industrial park and river trade cargo with theUnion Pacific Railroad and the BNSF Railwaysystems. Both Class I lines provide daily serviceinto the port’s own marshalling yard. These fullservicepublic terminals offer all industry in theport and adjacent sites the opportunity to ship bybarge. The terminals are equipped to handle almostany product, allowing a cost-effective,efficient mode of transportation.Little Rock has the designation of Foreign TradeZone 14. This zone is in the Little Rock Port IndustrialPark and encompasses the entire port. A104,000-square-foot commercial warehouse isdedicated to the Foreign Trade Zone. Sub-zonesof FTZ No. 14 are located across Arkansas.The Little Rock Port Authority, Fred I. BrownSlackwater Harbor, is an excellent attribute of theport. This safe harbor is 4,500 feet long, 300 feetwide and 15 feet deep. It allows barges to get offthe main current of the river into the zero currentof the harbor for loading and offloading. The harboris surrounded by developed land ready foroccupancy by heavy industrial users.Little Rock is a U.S. Customs Port of Entry forfreight, with customs officials on call. The LittleRock Port Authority therefore facilitates importand export of products while providing an efficientmanufacturing location for heavy industry.The Port of Little Rock completed its $12 millionprogram to build the infrastructure in the SlackwaterHarbor, including drainage, a new dock,two new warehouses, three new roads, constructionof rail throughout the harbor, a new bulkproducts pier, provision of water and sewer serviceto all harbor sites and rehabilitation of theexisting rail line. In 2007, the port’s railroad underwenta $5 million reconstruction of the existingtrack and expansion of the marshalling yardto accommodate future industrial growth. l76 2009 Business Guide Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce