Port Of Rosedale Poised For Expansion, Growth

When the Rosedale-Bolivar County Port Commission hired Robert Maxwell as the deputy director of the Port of Rosedale almost 16 years ago, the move marked a homecoming of sorts for Maxwell.

Maxwell is a native of Ruleville, Miss., a small Mississippi Delta town about 10 miles east of Cleveland, Miss. Cleveland, birthplace of the Blues and home of the Delta State University Fighting Okra, is roughly 20 miles east of Rosedale.

All are short distances for the culturally and agriculturally rich Mississippi Delta.

In his first eight months on the job, Maxwell served alongside longtime port director David Work. When Work retired in June 2010, Maxwell took over as port director. Remarkably, Maxwell is only the second person to lead the Port of Rosedale, with Work serving in that role for 33 years.

Maxwell came to the port after five years in the oil and gas industry. After he and his wife, Pam, married in 2004, Maxwell took a job with a natural gas company, and the couple moved to Beckley, W.Va. After a couple of years there, Maxwell transferred to Birmingham, Ala. Following the economic slowdown in 2008, which coincided with a sharp drop in natural gas prices, Maxwell did some contract work within the oil and gas industry. When Maxwell heard that Work was getting ready to retire, he eagerly applied to be his protege and eventual successor. For a native son of the Delta, it was a perfect fit.

“The Mississippi Delta is a unique place,” Maxwell said. “Some people absolutely love it, and some people just can’t quite wrap their head around it. The port commission liked that I was a local and wanted to come back.”

The Port of Rosedale is a slack-water harbor that essentially runs north-south from the Mississippi River, comprising the upper reach of an old oxbow. Tenants at the port are primarily agriculture-based. At the upper end of the harbor is Cives Steel, a heavy steel fabricator. Moving southward on David Work Drive, visitors to the port will pass a Consolidated Grain and Barge terminal. Next is a liquid and dry bulk fertilizer terminal operated by Simplot, then the Port of Rosedale’s public terminal. Helena Chemical operates a liquid fertilizer terminal on site, and below that are terminals operated by Farmers Grain Terminal and Louis Dreyfus Commodities. At the lower end of the harbor, Jantran has a base of operations for fleeting and barge and vessel repair.

Especially during harvest seasons, which include corn, rice and soybeans, truck and barge traffic within the port is steady and stands to grow with some expansion projects in the works.

The port is working with the Vicksburg Engineer District on a Section 107 project to expand the channel and create a larger turning basin at the upper end of the harbor. The Corps identified a navigation risk at the entry channel, especially during low water. In addition, the existing turning basin lacks adequate fleet capacity, especially during low water.

“It’s going to widen the entire channel from where it comes in off the river all the way in,” Maxwell said. “Then, once you get into the main harbor, we’re going to extend and expand the turning basin. It won’t look any different from the surface level, but it will actually push us further to the north of the existing harbor. It will take that area down to the full authorized depth.”

Maxwell said the possibility of getting started in the near future on the harbor expansion is incredibly exciting, especially considering that he sent his first inquiry about it in 2018. The $10 million project will be cost-shared at 80 percent from the federal treasury and 20 percent from the port. Maxwell said the Corps is nearing completion of the design work and waiting for full authorization and for construction funding.

“We hope we can start construction of the expansion project in 2026,” Maxwell said. “We can’t sign an agreement until they have all their funding in place. Then, we’ll start paying our portion of it.”

The Port of Rosedale is also in the process of putting a Maritime Administration Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) grant to work for relocating and reconstructing a port-owned conveyor assembly to handle inbound cargoes and rehabilitating a conveyor for handling outbound cargoes. The project will also replace an old spud barge to allow for cargo handling, even in low water conditions. The $8.7 million grant was announced in the fall of 2023.

The port is also working to rehabilitate a shortline railroad that runs from Rosedale south to Metcalfe, Miss., near Greenville.

Those infrastructure projects will not only benefit the port and its existing tenants but also will attract interest in available land at the lower and upper ends of the harbor, Maxwell said. It’s also timely, with farm yields growing and cargo handlers in need of newer, more efficient equipment.

“They’re getting bigger and better and more efficient, so they’re yielding more, combines are bigger, trucks are bigger, everything about it,” he said, “but you’re still hauling to what would be considered an old facility.”

Besides the port-directed projects, Simplot recently finished rebuilding its fertilizer facility within the port.

With all that in view, Maxwell said he’s excited about the future.

Beyond his work at the port, Maxwell has also excelled as a community leader and within the broader maritime industry. He currently is serving as president of the board of directors of Inland Rivers, Ports & Terminals Inc. (IRPT). He also is president of the MS Ports Council and the Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce.

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Featured photo caption: Grain is loaded into a hopper barge in the Port of Rosedale, Miss. (Photo by Frank McCormack)