Shawneetown Port Marks Groundbreaking For Fertilizer Terminal

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker joined the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and state and local leaders August 28 to officially break ground on a new fertilizer distribution center in Old Shawneetown, Ill.

The fertilizer terminal at the Shawneetown Regional Port District, Ohio River Mile 853, is funded in part by $12.6 million from the Rebuild Illinois capital program, part of a combined $27 million in public and private funds.

“The Shawneetown Regional Port will soon be revitalized with new activity–moving millions of pounds of fertilizer for Illinois’ thriving agriculture industry,” Pritzker said. “Through this funding and partnership, we’re bringing jobs, investment and opportunity to the people of Gallatin County, while helping Shawneetown become a thriving river community with a bustling intermodal hub once again.”

The Ohio River powered early economic development and commerce in Old Shawneetown, with infrastructure at the site once supporting coal unloading. In the 1990s, a decline in coal mining also saw the decline in jobs and economic growth in the region, and the coal terminal closed. The new fertilizer terminal at the port will create a new hub—partly built from repurposed infrastructure—where fertilizer can be received, stored, blended and distributed by truck. After construction concludes in 2026, the new facility is expected to create nearly 50 jobs, including truck drivers and new positions at the port.

“We are overjoyed to be a part of the first step to the revitalization of the Shawneetown Port,” said Patrick H. Scates, president of SGI River Terminals, LLC, which has invested $3 million to build the new fertilizer terminal and will unload the fertilizer at the site. “Gov. Pritzker and IDOT understand and see the value in investing in our inland waterway ports and terminals in Illinois. This public-private facility will not only bring much needed jobs to southeastern Illinois but also bring better pricing and supply of fertilizer to our Illinois farmers.”

SGI River Terminals, part of the family-owned Scates Group Intermodal, purchased property at the site that was previously owned by River Materials, which was affiliated with Peabody Coal. Peabody had been active in the area since the 1960s. After the agreement, the port acquired additional acreage, including river frontage, from Peabody. That expanded the port from 50 to 150 acres.

Mark York, chair of the Shawneetown Regional Port, expressed excitement in what he called “the next step in the economic revitalization of southern Illinois and of the Shawneetown Regional Port from being one that primarily served the coal industry to one that serves sustainable industries with the very real potential to bring jobs and economic growth back to Gallatin County.”

Funding from IDOT was awarded from $150 million made available from the Rebuild Illinois program on a competitive basis to improve the state’s 19 public ports. The capital program was passed by the Illinois legislature and signed into law in 2019. The governor’s office said it was the first time in state history that a capital program invested in waterways. Projects were selected based on their potential to advance the Illinois Marine Transportation System Plan, which prioritizes asset management performance-based decisions and benefits to disadvantaged or economically distressed areas.

Additionally, $400,000 from IDOT’s Illinois Competitive Freight Program is assisting in building a new main entrance road, eliminating a bottleneck for trucks. The port district was awarded $10,120,000 from a federal Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) grant for a new port access road and $420,000 for a port master plan.