Lowndes port gets MDOT grant

The Lowndes County Port Authority in Columbus, Miss., has received a $466,317 grant from Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) to expand its West Bank Port. The project, which will cost more than $476,000, will add a 250-foot crane rail extension that allows operators to off-load two barges at the same time and increasing the capacity of raw materials to be off-loaded and taken to Indiana-based Steel Dynamics Inc.’s Columbus facility, according to the Port Authority. The remaining $10,000 will be funded by the LCPA. At the start, the port will increase current tonnage by about 20 percent, which could eventually lead to doubling the amount of tonnage coming through the port annually, according to Will Sanders, director for the Port Authority. The extension project stands to increase the port's profits since it is paid by tonnage, according to Sanders, but he would not disclose to The Dispatch the total annual tonnage numbers. Online, MDOT documents indicate just short of 1 million tons passed through the port in 2012. The new extension is tentatively scheduled to begin this fall. It will take about 12 months to complete. (Source: Columbus Dispatch 07/23/18)