America’s Central Port | South Harbor | Granite City, Illinois
Juneau was hired by the America’s Central Port District to design and assist in the preparation of all the necessary permits for a new harbor on the Mississippi River, which is located just south of Locks No. 27. The South Harbor will serve both wet and dry bulk commodities along with containers to be loaded and off-loaded from barges.
Juneau assisted the America’s Central Port District to successfully complete and competitively obtain federal funding for the harbor construction under a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Juneau also coordinated the various phases of the levy improvement project, which included construction of new relieve wells on the dry sides of the levy, clay trench and clay blanket installation as required by Corps of Engineers to meet the 500 year flood protection requirements.
The new harbor is a key element of an overall project, which was a part of the Port’s TIGER Grant application. For the first time, six Class I railroads and four interstate highways with a lock-free, public inland waterway environment, will come together in concert to create a multi-modal gateway of both national and regional significance.
For a national perspective, the South Harbor will create a new maritime global gateway, utilizing the marine highway opportunity on the Mississippi River, to transport cargo from Chicago, Illinois, and points north, to the ports of the Gulf of Mexico and beyond to foreign ports. The ease of connecting rail, river and road at one location, coupled with the significant financial savings derived from the new harbor, will promote exports, as called for by the President’s National Export Initiative.
Regionally, the project is significant because it encourages shippers along the new Marine Highway and inland to use the new harbor, saving both time and money.
