Port of Fort Smith awarded $8.1 million grant for transload project

Fort Smith metro port operations continue to benefit from federal funds. The latest federal award will help build an almost $10 million transload yard on more than 6 acres of newly acquired property at the Port of Fort Smith.

Marty Shell, president of Van Buren-based Five Rivers Distribution, said the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded the Fort Smith Port Authority an $8.1 million grant through the federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant program.

The 28-acre Port of Fort Smith is located near the confluence of the Poteau and Arkansas Rivers at 200 Navy Road in Fort Smith. Shell said the port authority is in the process of acquiring 6.5 acres near the port for $135,000. The transload facility will be built on that property. Shell said existing warehouses and other infrastructure at the port will provide space and resources for more cargo to be handled by rail.

“The transload yard and warehouses will allow the Fort Smith Port Authority to expand capacity by 40% and more efficiently serve the transportation needs of our river and rail customers located in the Port Industrial Park,” according to the federal grant application. “River and rail are the most environmentally friendly means of transportation and are often the most cost effective and safe means to ship hazardous or bulky products, reducing the congestion and state of good repair costs associated with highway freight traffic.”

Shell said the 6.5-acre property will be built up so that the transload operation will be above the flood plain. It will also include more space for truck parking. Shell said he is working primarily with Ashley Garris, assistant executive director of the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District (WAPADD), on the grant process.

“We will be able to bring in all modes of transportation,” Shell said. “We can unload rail cars, get that put on trucks and send to the end-use customer. And right now, we have customers in 17 states.”

He said most of the products likely to be handled at the new yard will be in support of products, including bulk feed and fertilizers, needed in the poultry and beef industries.

“It will help our farmers, and our industries to use some of the cheapest modes of transportation,” Shell said.

Shell said environmental and engineering work on the project could be finished by the end of 2026. If so, work on the project could begin in early 2027 and finish by the end of 2027. The total project is estimated to cost $9.7 million. A 20% match, totaling $1.6 million, is required, and he is working with other organizations and government entities to land the matching funds.

Five Rivers, which now has around 18 employees, will hire three more people when the new yard is finished, Shell said. Acting Fort Smith City Administrator Jeff Dingman said the grant will further help the region take advantage of having access to a major U.S. navigable waterway.

“This is a significant infusion for that entity,” Dingman said. “It’s just more capacity for local businesses to take advantage of the river system for freight.”

The federal funds were made available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. All six members of Arkansas’ Congressional delegation voted against the act, which was pushed by the Biden administration.

OTHER PORT PROJECTS
Five Rivers is also part of the $18 million slackwater harbor project in Van Buren. That work, funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD), was recently approved. Shell worked with Garris through the Western Arkansas Intermodal Authority, which is managed by WAPADD.

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.

In September 2025, the Port of Fort Smith received an almost $2 million grant from the Arkansas Waterways Commission to help build a new warehouse. The grant was part of the effort to rebuild from the 2019 flood that significantly damaged the product-handling facility.

A previous $500,000 grant from the commission in July 2024 was used to help fund a $1.7 million, 30,000-square-foot bulk storage warehouse at the port. Shell said in 2024 that about $6 million had been spent at the port to recover from 2019 flood damage, with all of the money coming from grants, insurance proceeds, and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) money.