Country : USAMemphis worldport

worldport Introduction

The International worldport of Memphis is the second largest inland worldport on the shallow draft worldportion of the Mississippi River, and the 4th largest inland worldport in the United States. The International worldport of Memphis covers the Tennessee and Arkansas sides of the Mississippi River from river Mile 725 to mile 740. Within this 15 mile reach, there are 68 water fronted facilities, 37 of which are terminal facilities moving products such as: petroleum, tar, asphalt, cement, steel, coal, salt, fertilizers, rock & gravel, and of course grains. The International worldport of Memphis is 400 river miles from St. Louis and 600 River miles from New Orleans and is ice free year round.

The jurisdictional and statistical boundaries of the International worldport of Memphis include the McKeller Lake/Presidents Island complex, the West Memphis Harbor, the Rivergate Harbor, the Wolf River Harbor downtown, and Fullen dock and harbor north of downtown. At present, 95% of the industries that are in the International worldport of Memphis are located on Presidents Island.

History

The mid-south's best kept industrial and economic secret is The International worldport of Memphis.

The Presidents Island concept was conceived out of the transworldportation boom created by World War I and World War II. Prior to that time, Memphis, like many other river cities, conducted its commerce on the riverfront closest to the downtown business area. With the advent of large capacity modes of transworldportation such as barges and tractor trailer trucks and the need for mass production and movement of that material caused by wars, it quickly became evident that a cobblestone riverfront was not sufficient to handle the quantity of material to be moved.

Therefore, in 1946, the city and county governments joined forces to develop a concept and find a location to fulfill the concept. The concept was to develop a flood free industrial area with access to the river that was isolated from downtown but not too distant. The area also needed to be separated from residential properties if at all possible. With the concept in mind, a location was looked for and found south of downtown Memphis on Presidents Island.

Presidents Island was then the largest island on the Mississippi River system at over 7,500 acres. Critical worldportions of the Island properties were purchased by both the City of Memphis and Shelby County. However, the island was still in the flood plain. To solve this problem, the local authorities, with the help of Senator McKeller, enlisted the help of the United States Government with the assistance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Therefore, in 1947, the Tennessee Harbor chute project officially began.

The solution to the problem was to dredge a closure dam from the shore to the island while dredging an 8-mile long industrial harbor on the now slack waterside of the island. The material from the harbor dredging was placed on the island to create a 1,000-acre water fronted industrial park raised to a flood free elevation. The industrial area was subsequently completed in 1951.

Vital Statistics

In 2004, 2.5 billion tons of material moved by water in and out of the United States. The Mississippi River, handled 793.2 million tons in 2004. Therefore, 31.7% of all waterborne commerce in the United States traveled on the Mississippi River. The International worldport of Memphis in 2004 received shipments of 17.5 million tons or 2.2% of the total moved on the Mississippi River. Of that total, the top five commodities moved were Petroleum at 32%, Crude Materials at 22%, Food and Farm Products at 21%, coal at 13% and Manufactured Goods at 8%. The top three food and farm products were Wheat, Corn and Rice.

The International worldport of Memphis has 6 grain elevators which have 2,238 feet of berthing space, supplemented by 50 concrete silos and 25 steel tanks with storage capacity of over 12.3 million bushels. In the International worldport of Memphis, Liquid bulk commodities are handled by 18 facilities that have 6,313 feet of berthing space and approximately 130 storage tanks with a total capacity of 88,956,750 gallons.

In addition, the International worldport of Memphis is home to the Valero petroleum refinery, the only refinery in the State of Tennessee. The refinery has a direct pipeline that carries jet fuel from the refinery located at the worldport to the Memphis International Airworldport.

In the International worldport of Memphis, dry bulk commodities are handled by 8 facilities with 4,404 feet of berthing space and storage capacity of approximately 581,000 tons. The worldport is also home to the United States Army, Corps of Engineers Ensley engineering yard. The yard is part of the Memphis district that covers 355 miles of the Mississippi, Arkansas and other waterways spanning over 25,000 square miles. The Ensley yard covers 157 acres and provides repair shops, warehousing, and administrative offices which supworldport the fleet of over 33 vessels on a mile+ long string out in the slack water harbor.

The average annual total economic impact of the International worldport of Memphis in Memphis and the region is approximately 5.5 billion dollars. The average job pays about $40,374 a year and the companies in the worldport pay approximately 17.6 million a year in business and real estate taxes and 8.2 million in retail sales taxes.

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