AWC Holds First Meeting With New Director
On July 17, the Arkansas Waterways Commission (AWC) held its first meeting with a full membership since the departure of former executive director Cassandra Caldwell, who left in 2024 to become government affairs manager at American Cruise Lines. AWC is the state agency responsible for developing and promoting waterborne transportation in Arkansas.
The commission last met on April 7, before the appointment of new executive director Joseph “Joe” Bailey on May 27. Bailey was formally introduced at the meeting, although he already was well known to many AWC members. Arkansas Secretary of Commerce Hugh McDonald said he was “really excited about where we can take Arkansas waterways with this new leadership.”
Grant Reports
Several Arkansas port representatives reported on the progress of grants the ports received last year from the commission.
Brian Day, executive director of the Port of Little Rock, thanked the commission for a grant of $500,000 last year to help the port construct and repair barge-mooring pylons to increase its fleeting and transloading capacity. The project involved replacing 15 deteriorated deadman anchors with 36 new steel monopile mooring dolphins and installing 11 monopile dolphins at an additional location within the slackwater harbor. Day said the contractor has been paid $2.4 million of the $5 million contract so far.
“It’s a three-step process” that involves driving pipe into river bottom and welding a section on top, he said. Some work was delayed due to high water. The original June 30 deadline was extended by two weeks. The contractor was the low bidder, coming in at 20 percent lower than the next-highest bidder.
“In the past, we tied barges to trees or deadmen,” Day said. The new piles will double capacity and make barge transloading safer for crews.
Jeff Worsham, port manager for Poinsett Rice and Grain at the Port of Osceola, home of Big River Steel, reported on the progress of a retaining wall the port is building. He said 200 feet of new retaining wall should be completed within a week.
Graycen Bigger, executive director of the Northeast Arkansas Intermodal Authority, which joins Lawrence, Randolph, Sharp and Clay counties to promote the region’s assets and leverage their combined resources, reported on the authority’s efforts. “We’re kind of the newbie” in the system, she said. The facility built an intersection allowing the port to get heavy equipment in. It also cleared out a ditch and laid pipe.
Dustin Collyge, terminal manager at Fort Smith, Ark., said his port expects to complete a new warehouse by the fourth quarter of 2025, when the port may have an announcement of additional funding. He thanked the commission for its support to date.
Three Rivers Update
Josh Hendrix and Phyllis Harden gave an update on the Three Rivers Project. It has been under consideration since 2015, and the Chief of Engineers report recommending project authorization was finalized in September 2018.
Phase 2 construction is on track to be completed on time and within budget, Harden said. She reported that the Corps team has since found “a few minor design flaws” in the initial design and fixed them, with high water providing some time to correct them. Part of the project is building containment structures to keep the White River from cutting through to the Arkansas River during high water events as the containment structures built in the 1980s have reached the end of their useful life.
“It’s a big risk to towing,” she said. “We need the White River to stay in its place.”
Funds Reprogramming
Commissioners discussed the ongoing issue of the $83 million in funding that was reallocated from the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS) 12-foot deepening project to the Three Rivers Project. After that reallocation took place, Congress appropriated additional funds to the Three Rivers Project.
“It turns out that reprogramming didn’t need to happen,” said Gene Higginbotham, former executive director of the Southeast Arkansas Economic Development District, who has been involved with every phase of the Three Rivers Project.
Thus far, those funds have not been sent back to the MKARNS deepening project or to any other project in Arkansas.
“Contact your member of Congress,” said commission member Marty Shell, who is also president of Five Rivers Distribution. Shell noted that up to 95 percent of the MKARNS already has an effective depth of at least 12 feet. The issue is a few chokepoints above Dardanelle, where bedrock must be removed.
“We are only five percent away from being 100 percent complete,” Shell said.
Corps dredges are currently allowed to dredge the navigation channel only to 9 feet.
