Slackwater harbor in Van Buren will take three to five years to complete

The River Valley Slackwater Harbor project, which received notification in November that it would receive a $15.096 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD), is now expected to take three to five years to complete.

“So, we’ve been funded. Now what? I know that question is out there. We have questions of our timeline, what we do next. First, I just want to say that we must be patient,” Sasha Grist, Western Arkansas Planning and Development District (WAPDD) executive director, said to the Western Arkansas Intermodal Authority board at a meeting Wednesday (Jan. 17).

The WAPDD staff and Marty Shell, president of Van Buren-based Five Rivers Distribution, have participated in calls and training with MARAD since the announcement of the grant to complete a four-page checklist of pre-award requirements, including an environmental study that must be completed before any monies are awarded, Grist said.

“If you have someone who says, why isn’t construction going on,or why isn’t the project moving, … you can understand all of the things we are having to do,” Grist said.

She said WAPDD is estimating, based on calls with MARAD, that the project completion will take three to five years. The first year will consist of getting all documentation, the environmental study and engineering design. The second year will include contract preparation for bidding and bidding of the contracts.

“This is all going to take time. It is not something that will be completed in the first year,” Grist said.

The grant, announced Nov. 3 by MARAD, will provide a majority of funding to build a slackwater harbor off the main channel of the Arkansas River that will be approximately 1,000 feet long and 200 feet wide and have the capacity to moor and offload up to eight barges at a time. The harbor will have roughly 2,000 feet of dock frontage with a 50-foot-wide concrete deck for mobile cranes.

The new harbor will enhance reliability of the port because it will be less susceptible to operational disruptions and damage resulting from fluctuations in the flow rate of the river, according to MARAD. The harbor will increase barge handling capacity of the port and will improve port resilience because the concrete deck will be constructed above the 100-year flood level to ensure year-round operation even in the face of flooding events, noted the MARAD statement.

By 2035, it is predicted that the facility will handle an additional 250,000 tons of freight annually, Grist said. The slackwater harbor project will be located on a man-made channel off the Arkansas River at Five Rivers Terminal in Crawford County, near Van Buren. The entire slackwater harbor project is expected to cost $18.87 million. Five Rivers Distribution, which has port operations in Van Buren and operates the Port of Fort Smith, has committed to providing the $3.774 million in matching funds, Grist said.

“We had to submit a match letter from Five Rivers Distribution that they had the match available and there were no strings attached and Marty had the fund. That was sent to MARAD and approved,” said Ashleigh Garris, WAPDD assistant executive director/director of economic development.

That letter was sent in with the project’s pre-application, which Garris should be approved by the end of January. Once that is approved, they can move ahead with the publishing a request for a the permitting for the the environmental piece of the process, she said.

“This is a huge win for our area, and we are extremely excited,” Grist said.