Ports authority marks $24M investment in Jeffersonville
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The Ports of Indiana is marking the completion of a multi-year, multi-million-dollar upgrade to its facility in Jeffersonville. The port authority invested $24 million to expand rail operations, increase transloading capacity, and speed-up loading times from trains and trucks to barges. The port operator says the infrastructure improvements along the Ohio River will increase maritime commerce through domestic barge service.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Ports of Indiana Chief Executive Officer Vanta Coda said the facility needed to be “bigger, better and faster” to keep up with manufacturing productivity.
“The different attributes are really designed around bigger capacity, more ability to handle future growth, and then for our customers to leverage those infrastructure assets so that they can grow,” said Coda. “Our design is to make bigger, better infrastructure that private companies can utilize. And then they hire more people. They invest more dollars. That’s really where we get our main synergy for the state.”
Coda says the project has been in the works since 2015 when it received a $10 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant from the federal government. Ports of Indiana contributed $11 million and $3 million came from the private sector.
He says most of the construction occurred over the past two years and was completed earlier this year.
“The completion of the TIGER project is the result of the commitment that the Ports of Indiana has to best-in-class infrastructure,” said Coda.
The Ports of Indiana-Jeffersonville added four miles of track to the port’s existing 11-mile rail network to accommodate unit trains.
Its riverfront intermodal facility has doubled capacity of bulk commodities, such as grain, that are transferred from rail cars or trucks to barges. The authority says a new conveyor belt can fill one rail car in three minutes.
The port complex, which is nearly 1,100 acres, also added a transload facility that allows cargo to be transferred between trucks and trains.
Jeffersonville is home to one of three of Indiana’s ports, the others being Burns Harbor and Mount Vernon. The authority says together the three ports contribute more than $8.2 billion per year to the state economy. Jeffersonville alone contributes $1.8 billion yearly in economic impact.
“And so, what we try to do is capture that first layer of value. And that’s where we get the economic development where people come to the port, not only to transition materials, but to actually work those materials and that does happen at that campus,” Coda said.
According to data from the authority, the Jeffersonville port set a shipping record in 2021, handling 3.22 million tons, up 21.6% compared to 2020. This is the highest annual shipment total since it began operation in 1985.
Coda says the Ports of Indiana is a “long player” and the $24 million investment this time around will continue to pay-off over the long term.
“Long term isn’t five years. We think in terms of 50. And so, $24 million is in infrastructure that’s going to last that long. We’re really investing for the continued growth of the ports, and, and quite honestly, the state,” Coda said. “It’ll long pay for itself, if you think about it in terms of an ROI [return on investment]. The leverage factor is just huge.”