Firm ends study on new port in state’s west

Interest persists after termination

FORT SMITH — Ports America terminated its feasibility study for developing an intermodal port in western Arkansas but others remain interested in the project, Mat Pitsch told members of the Western Arkansas Intermodal Authority on Wednesday.

The nation’s largest terminal operator notified Pitsch, an authority staff member, before the study’s Nov. 1 deadline that the company had sold. The new management, while still interested in western Arkansas, was not ready to commit to the memorandum of understanding that Ports America signed with the authority in March.

“We don’t have any obligation to him anymore, or does he to us, except they think it’s one of the big projects they could do,” Pitsch said.

Pitsch was mining other prospects, he told members of the authority at their quarterly meeting Wednesday. Company representatives from a group from Louisiana have talked with officers from four large Northwest Arkansas corporations about the possibility of an intermodal port in Crawford County.

Union Pacific Railroad also continues to look at the site east of Van Buren on the Arkansas River after submitting a letter of interest in the project last March, Pitsch said.

He also said a former executive from Ports America, who is now with a different company, contacted Pitsch last week expressing interest in the port idea from a company of the same magnitude as Ports America.

Pitsch said he didn’t name any of the companies or individuals interested in the port or terminal project because they want to maintain a competitive advantage.

The authority signed the memorandum of understanding with Ports America in early March to conduct a sixmonth study on the feasibility of developing a port on the Arkansas River, during which the authority would negotiate with Ports America exclusively.

The authority has worked for years on the idea of developing a port that could encompass up to 6,000 acres, include a slack-water harbor on the river side of the Crawford County levee and on the land side a rail-to-truck or rail-to-river terminal, as well as construction of industries, distribution centers and warehouses in an industrial park that would take advantage of the transportation hub.

Progress has been slow, and authority member David Hudson, county judge for Sebastian County, addressed the sense of frustration and impatience that can be caused by the slow progress in transportation infrastructure development.

He said there were no guarantees that hiring John Vickerman and Associates for $200,000 in 2017 to conduct a market assessment for the authority would produce any results.

“How can we walk away from that at this point?” he said. “That would be foolishness.”

He said the authority should take satisfaction from the progress made and continue to pursue development of the port.

He also said the authority was important as a united voice for development of western Arkansas, which is a challenge since individual entities may not benefit as much as others.

Established eight years ago, the authority is composed of the mayors of Van Buren and Fort Smith and the county judges from Sebastian and Crawford counties, along with community leaders from the two counties.

The city and county governments voted to chip in $40,000 each in early 2017 to hire Vickerman, a port planner and designer, to conduct the assessment. He generated the contact with Ports America, Union Pacific and others.

Vickerman’s job is finished but he has left behind a draft Project Market Overview Assessment that the authority plans to update to send out in the future along with requests for expressions of interest in the intermodal project.