Sen. Boozman tours Port of Van Buren, hears about issue with levee board

Progress on building a slackwater harbor on the Van Buren side of the Arkansas River is stalled in part because the Crawford County Levee Board has so far declined to sign off on the project. Officials also are waiting on the feds to approve design and engineering.

The Maritime Administration (MARAD) of the U.S. Department of Transportation 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), the a parent agency of the Western Arkansas Intermodal Authority (WAIA).

Marty Shell, president of Five Rivers, and Sasha Grist, WAPDD executive director, met Thursday (Jan. 22) with U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., to tour the planned slackwater harbor location, with Shell and Grist explaining the process to get federal approval.

Shell said “a local hurdle” is getting a signature of approval, which is required by MARAD, on the harbor work. He told Boozman he is working with Crawford County Judge Chris Keith and Van Buren Mayor Joe Hurst to help “with the unaccounted for levee board.”

“They haven’t really caused us any problems in the past, but they can stop a $20 million project,” Shell said.

Shell and Grist said the urgency is if they don’t get all the documents and bureaucratic steps cleared by June 30, they could lose the entire project. They did not ask Boozman for any help with the issue, but wanted him to be aware of one ongoing issue with the delay.

Rick Wilkins, chair of Crawford County Levee Board, told Talk Business & Politics that the board has concerns with the impact the harbor could have on the nearby levee. He said the harbor could “trap water.”

“We’re asking him to correct that problem and it’s going to cost a lot of money,” Wilkins said. “We’re not trying to be difficult. We’ve got some problems, and we have a meeting set up for next week with the (U.S.) Corps of Engineers and Marty (Shell) and whoever wants to come.”

Shell said the harbor plan will not have an impact on the levee, and they have extensive engineering work from Fort Smith-based Mickle Griffin proving such. Those plans and other issues are set to be discussed Wednesday (Jan. 28) in Van Buren during a joint meeting between the levee board, the Corps of Engineers, WAPDD, and Shell.

Mickle said another reason to get the project moving forward is to lock in steel prices. Steel, estimated to cost at least $10 million, is the largest budget item with the project.

“We’ve had one person on that (levee board) be difficult, but we’re hoping everybody will see, when we get everyone together, that this is a real project with real dollars, and it could quadruple what we handle out here (at the Port of Fort Smith),” Shell said.

Shell said prior to the tour that they also handle materials that feed manufacturing operations in Northwest Arkansas, including Bekaert’s manufacturing plant in Rogers.

Boozman, who earlier in the day toured the Bekaert manufacturing plant in Van Buren, which receives all of its raw steel from the port, said the planned harbor being approved and with federal matching dollars is what happens “with everybody working together.” He indicated that people understand the value of the harbor and will come together to make it happen.