$24 Million Grant Advances Paducah Port

A $24 million federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant will allow the first phase of construction on the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority’s Riverport West project.

U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) announced the grant award from the U.S. Department of Transportation on July 1.

The port site, at Ohio River Mile 944 on the left descending bank, will include a heavy haul road and 650-foot dock with 6½ acres of operating space, three barge berths and more than a mile of rail, with two sidings approaching the dock.

Required matching funding of 20 percent of the project cost has been allocated through the Kentucky Government Resources Accelerating Needed Transformation (GRANT) Program of 2024, a state-funded initiative administered by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development that helps local communities and nonprofits meet required matching funds to secure federal grants.

Environmental studies have been completed along with 90 percent of the engineering, making the project “shovel ready,” pending final state and federal permitting, said Jimmie Garrett, executive director of the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority.

The grant will allow construction on the first of three barge berths, along with a heavy haul access road to the site. The riverport authority continues to seek additional federal and state grants to secure the remaining funds needed to complete the dock as part of the second phase and rail infrastructure for the third phase of development.

Construction on the first phase is expected to begin in 2027 with completion in 2028, Garrett said. He expects the site to employ an additional 14 workers.

In preparing for the grant announcement, the riverport authority has renamed its existing port Riverport East. It is located 8 miles away from the new port site, between Miles 1.3 and 2.0 of the Tennessee River, near its confluence with the Ohio.

With Riverport East landlocked in Paducah’s downtown region, at 95 percent capacity and with no rail access, Riverport West provides valuable space for expansion. It is also in a key location, immediately across the road from an 800-acre heavy-industrial-zone site that the Greater Paducah Economic Development Corporation is marketing as the “Triple Rail Site” because of direct rail access in all directions via the Paducah & Louisville Railway, the Canadian National Railway Company and BNSF Railway Company.

“Riverport West is a growth mechanism for the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport, but Riverport West is really the economic driver supporting economic growth into western McCracken County through multi-modal transportation: rail, river and road,” Garrett said.

He pointed out important aspects of the port’s design as part of renderings submitted in the grant application.

“The tower crane is strategically placed to allow transloading from rail to truck to barge without repositioning the equipment,” he said.

This will allow safer and more efficient transportation of cargoes by barge and rail that currently move by truck, he said.

The port construction timeline is designed to coincide with the planned construction of a $1.5 billion commercial uranium enrichment facility that will be built 2 miles from the new port at an existing site owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. That project was announced in August 2025. Garrett said it would make sense to bring in heavy equipment and construction materials through the port, by either river or rail, for both development of the Triple Rail Site and the DOE site. Those future facilities would also be well positioned as port customers, he has said previously.

Bacon Farmer Workman (BFW) Engineering, headquartered in Paducah, is the prime consultant contracted by the riverport to provide full-service engineering support from contractual planning through completion of all three phases, along with preparation and submission of grant applications.

“BFW is very excited to have participated in this project, working alongside the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority, and BFW is proud to have led the planning, design, permitting and the federal and state grant applications,” said Ken Bowen, maritime practice lead with BFW Engineering.

Comer said that his office had been in constant communication with the U.S. Department of Transportation over the last eight months concerning the project. His assistance included setting up a meeting for riverport and Paducah community leaders to converse with high-level staff at DOT headquarters in Washington, D.C. as well as sending a letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and calling senior DOT officials to underscore the project’s importance to western Kentucky’s economy, transportation infrastructure and long-term growth.

“The Department of Transportation’s decision today to award a $24 million BUILD grant for the Riverport West Project is a major win for McCracken County and will help unlock new opportunities for economic growth across our region,” Comer said in announcing the grant award. “I am proud to support the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority and its community partners whose leadership and vision have made this transformative project possible. I will continue to work with our community leaders and the Trump administration to support investments that strengthen western Kentucky’s infrastructure, create jobs and expand economic opportunities.”

Garrett thanked Comer for his support, along with that of Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, saying that their backing has been instrumental in moving the project forward. He added that the grant funds mark “a critical milestone in positioning Riverport West as a catalyst for economic growth across western Kentucky.”

Featured photo caption: A $24 million federal BUILD grant, paired with a required 20 percent match through a Kentucky grant program, will allow construction of the first phase of the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority’s Riverport West Project at Ohio River Mile 944. This rendering shows the 650-foot dock with three barge berths and two rail sidings. (Image courtesy of Bacon Farmer Workman Engineering)