Bill To Create Jefferson City, Mo., Port Authority Passed By State Legislature, Goes To Governor

A bill that would create an official port district in Jefferson City, Mo., was passed out of the Missouri Senate May 24 and is awaiting the signature of Gov. Mike Parsons. The bill was sponsored by state Rep. Rudy Veit, who represents Jefferson City and a surrounding area of Cole County.

On his blog, Rep. Veit decried the stalling of many important bills due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus. But he singled out supporters of the port authority bill for praise, including Heartland Port Authority, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, state Sen. Mike Bernskoetter, the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce, the Corn Producers Association, the Soybean Producers Association and numerous other entities.

Veit mentioned the importance of container-on-vessel to his vision for the future of the Jefferson City port district. “The port is part of a larger future plan to have a larger type of vessel moving up and down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers carrying more than 1,500 containers at one time, moving at 13 mph. and running 365 days a year. They can have refrigeration containers. The containers can easily be transferred to other vessels. So when it arrives in New Orleans, it can be loaded automatically onto a larger vessel that can hold 18,000–20,000 container units and can go through the Panama Canal and be spread across the whole world.”

Feasibility studies have been done on the land, which is mostly vacant. “When developed in the future, it will be an economic boon for Cole County, the state of Missouri and the midwestern United States,” Veit wrote. “It will help enable us to fully develop our products in mid-Missouri and ship them anywhere in the world much more easily and cheaply.”