Little Rock Port Authority
The Little Rock Port Authority governs the Little Rock Port Terminal seven miles downstream from downtown Little Rock. The Port Terminal is leased to Logistic Services, Inc. (LSI) which provides professional stevedoring services. The Port Terminal contains a 1,500 acre industrial park, the Little Rock Port Railroad and intermodal facility, Slackwater Harbor, and Foreign Trade Zone 14. The Port Terminal is located adjacent to Interstate 440, and near the Little Rock National Airport. About 5,000 people work at or near the port.
The Port Terminal is able to accommodate bulk handling of cargo at 200 tons per hour inbound and 350 tons per hour outbound. The cargo lift capacity of the facility is fifty tons. The Industrial Harbor is 4,500 feet in length, 320 feet wide, and fifteen feet in depth. Indoor storage on the site is 134,000 square feet. More than 15 acres of outside storage is also provided. Typical cargoes handled at the port include forest products, steel, aluminum, rice, clay and rock, fertilizer, and cement.
The Little Rock Port Railroad has twelve miles of track connected to forty companies in the Little Rock Port Industrial Park. About 5,500 rail cars are switched at the port each year. The port railroad is connected to both the Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Railroad systems. The railroad agent on site is Willa Pinkerton. Leading industries in the industrial park are Ryerson, Unilever Best Foods, Con-Way Freight, Democrat Printing & Lithographing, Inc., GF, Inc., Interstate Highway Sign Corp., Schueck Steel, and Wheatland Tube. New industries that in 2007-2008 selected the port as the site of future plants are Boyd Metals, Sage V Foods, and LM Glasfiber. Two industries adjacent to the industrial park are Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren and Man Industries.
The Slackwater Harbor is a channel leading from the Arkansas River to the Port Industrial Park. The harbor is lined with a 190 foot dock and provides space for two barges stacked two deep on each side of the harbor. There is also a turning basin for the barges.
Foreign Trade Zone 14 is a twenty-five acre area at the Port that contains a 104,000 square foot building. The zone handles the trade, as well as "storage, testing, relabeling, displaying, [and] manufacturing," of good inbound from international locations or outbound from domestic industrial suppliers.
The Port Authority is established under Arkansas Code Annotated 14-186-203 and Little Rock City Code, Section 25-1, 2. The executive director of the Port Authority is Paul Latture. Current members appointed by the mayor are Larry Alman, G. Christopher Mathews, Jesse Mason, Jr., Mike Maulden, Jon Wickliffe, Gene Fortson, and Michael Keck. Director of operations is James Firestone. The headquarters building for the Little Rock Port Authority is located at 7500 Lindsey Road.
References
- Leroy Donald, "Businesses Buying Up Land at LR's Industrial Park," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 23, 2008.
