Federal funds to help port of Fort Smith expand rail operations

With $8.1 million in federal dollars recently approved, Marty Shell is hopeful the port of Fort Smith will have expanded rail capacity in place by early 2027 as part of the plan to rebuild and modernize a port all but destroyed in the 2019 flood.

Pushed by U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., the $8.1 million federal funding was recently approved with passage of several appropriations packages.

Shell, president of Van Buren-based Five Rivers Distribution, which operates the port of Fort Smith, said the goal is to build three, 30,000-square-foot warehouses to handle freight arriving via rail cars. Shell said the cost to build the warehouses was estimated in 2024, so they may only be able to build two warehouses based on current costs.

“This is all tied to rail infrastructure,” Shell said. “It’s for us to be able to move more rail cars, more rail volume through the port of Fort Smith. We get close to 1,000 (rail cars) through here a year, and each car can hold 100 tons, so to do that (expand rail use), we’ll need more warehouse space.”

Shell said rail cars typically carry products made or consumed in the U.S., whereas barges are more of a mix of products coming from or going to international markets. He said primary products delivered to the port by rail include bulk feeds, feed supplement for poultry and cattle, and wire coils used in manufacturing.

He said the warehouse construction process now involves project design, and he is not sure of the construction timeline. He said construction should take around 6 months once it begins, and he estimates the work will be finished no later than the first quarter of 2027.

The federal funding requires a 20% match, meaning the city’s port authority has to raise $1.62 million. Shell said he is working with city staff, the Arkansas Waterways Commission, and others to acquire the match.

“We’ll have to look under a lot of rocks, but it’s out there and we’ll get it,” Shell said.

He also said the new warehouses will mean at least two more employees at the port.

“We will have some new equipment for that, so there will be some investments on Five Rivers’ side as well with the growth,” Shell said.

Shell praised Sen. Boozman and his staff for continuing to push for the funding through several rounds of legislation. He also said Acting Fort Smith City Administrator Jeff Dingman has helped keep the project on track.

“In no way, shape, form, or fashion would we have received this money without him (Boozman) and his staff,” Shell said. “They (staff) helped keep this thing going and would not let it die. … He (Boozman) could have taken that money anywhere in Arkansas or in the United States but he saw the need here.”

PREVIOUS PORT WORK, FLOODING
Shell, along with the city’s port authority, have worked to rebuild the 28-acre port facility after it was substantially destroyed in the historic 2019 Arkansas River flood.

The port authority by 2024 spent more than $6 million in restoration with the money coming from grants, insurance proceeds, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to Shell. The Arkansas Waterways Commission also gave the port a $500,000 grant in 2024 to help fund a $1.7 million, 30,000-square-foot bulk storage warehouse.

The port in 2025 received a $1.8 million grant from the Arkansas Waterways Commission to build a 20,000-square-foot warehouse and a large concrete pad with perimeter walls to store bulk products.

Record flooding along the Arkansas River (McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, or MKARNS) in May and early June 2019 covered more than 2,100 parcels of land and flooded more than 500 homes and businesses in Fort Smith alone.

The floods stopped commercial barge traffic on the Arkansas River at a cost of $23 million a day to the state’s gross domestic product. The river crested May 29 in the Fort Smith area at 40.26 feet, well above the flood stage of 22 feet and surpassing the all-time highest river level of 38.1 feet set in May 1945.