Ports Of Indiana Plans Dry Bulk Terminal At Jeffersonville
The Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville plans to build a rail shed, pit, tunnel, conveyor and mooring cell to divert dry bulk cargo from rail and truck to barges for export.
The application for a Department of the Army permit calls for the construction on the right bank of the Ohio River at Mile 597 with a land address of 1402 Port Road in Jeffersonville, Ind.
The port’s permit was originally issued June 29, 1979. The modifications include utilizing an existing liquid bulk terminal for dry bulk cargo exclusively. The port anticipates handling grain, dry fertilizer, distiller’s grain, limestone, coke, coal, bottom ash and gypsum, all of which are currently handled at the facility.
To handle commodities at the dry bulk terminal, the port plans to build an 80- by 40-foot rail shed on the riverbank reaching a height of 86.5 feet above the ordinary high water (OHW) elevation of 422.2 feet Ohio River datum. Dry bulk would be deposited from the shed into a 43-foot- deep pit beneath it. A 97-foot tunnel with a conveyor would then transport material from the pit into daylight, then it would travel an additional 371 feet to the new cell and exit through a spout into a barge in the Ohio River.
The conveyor would be supported by a tower with a foundation constructed of four, 30-inch-diameter concrete piers drilled 16 feet below grade on the riverbank.
The mooring cell would be a 24-foot-diameter cell constructed of sheet pile and filled with 201 cubic yards of concrete. The cell, named Cell 6, would impact 0.01 acres of the Ohio River. A control tower on it would be 76.5 feet high above the OHW elevation of 422.5 feet Ohio River datum. Cell 6 would also include a circular stairwell and landing platform that would extend just below to the OHW to provide safe access to/from barges. To prevent scour at the river bottom, 240 cubic yards of rip-rap would be placed around the base of the cell and would impact 0.06 acres of the Ohio River. A maximum of two barges (35 feet by 195 feet each) situated two in length and one deep would be moored at Cell 6 at any given time.
