Officials hope Yi visit will end delay with slackwater harbor project

Ashley Garris and Marty Shell are hopeful but not overly optimistic that Tuesday’s (Sept. 23) visit by a top federal administrator will end a bureaucratic delay with the planned $18 million slackwater harbor in Van Buren.

U.S. Department of Transportation Acting Maritime Administrator (MARAD) Sang Yi on Tuesday toured port operations in Van Buren and the site for the slackwater harbor. U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, hosted Yi for the tour in the Fort Smith area and in Northwest Arkansas.

MARAD announced in November 2023 a $15.096 million grant to help fund construction of the harbor. The harbor will be off the main channel of the Arkansas River and will be 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.

Van Buren-based Five Rivers Distribution, which has port operations in Van Buren and operates the Port of Fort Smith, has committed to providing more than $3 million in matching funds for the project.

Construction on the slackwater harbor in Van Buren along the Arkansas River was initially set to begin in April 2026, with completion estimated to be in the first quarter of 2027, according to the the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District (WAPDD), which is a parent agency of the Western Arkansas Intermodal Authority (WAIA).

But obtaining approval by MARAD of the work has been delayed. Ashley Garris, WAPDD assistant executive director, and Five Rivers owner Marty Shell told Womack during his July 8 visit to the port that continued delays by MARAD to approve design, environmental and other agreements could delay project construction. Garris said without approval coming soon, project completion will likely be pushed further into 2027, and estimated project costs could rise.

Yi, who immigrated to the United States from South Korea with his family when he was four-years-old, said Tuesday he can’t commit to a quick turnaround with project approval, but he now knows more about the project and will work to address the delay.

During a meeting Tuesday afternoon with WAIA members and members of the Fort Smith Port Authority, Yi joked that Shell during the tour asked repeatedly for his “autograph,” but on an approval document.

“Maybe. We’ll see,” Shell said when asked if he believes Yi’s visit will expedite the process. “It can’t hurt that he (Womack) had him here to look at it and, you know, to see that this thing is real and that we need to quit messing around and get moving on it.”

Rep. Womack, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and chairman of the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) subcommittee, said direct involvement of agency leadership is often required to get authorized projects moving.

“Getting Acting Administrator Yi to the future River Valley Slackwater Harbor is essential to moving this project forward,” Womack told Talk Business & Politics. “It’s an unfortunate fact that agency leadership engagement is often required to cut through bureaucratic red tape. One of my goals as Chairman of THUD is to remove that unnecessary red tape but until then I will continue to ensure projects important to the Third District receive attention at the highest levels.”

Shell also expressed concern about the possibility of a government shutdown. Without approval of a continuing budget resolution, government spending – including for maritime projects – would come to a halt, and federal workers needed to approve the harbor project would not be on the job. The shutdown will begin Oct. 1 if a budget is not approved.

“That (shutdown) just pushes this approval out more. That could really screw up that (project timeline),” Shell said.