Cape Girardeau cement plant to expand rail yard, shipping capacity

An expansion at Buzzi Unicem USA will allow more cement shipments by rail and provide additional storage tracks at a new rail yard near its plant in Cape Girardeau.

The rail yard will have five half-mile-long storage tracks that can hold up to 50 cars each. Shipments by rail are expected to increase 25 to 30 percent once the project is complete. The company currently uses 25 railcars on two tracks.

Construction on the project began in October and is scheduled for completion in June or July, said project manager Bob Hodits.

Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority director Dan Overbey estimates the project will cost between $2 million and $3 million. The money to fund the project will come from the company.

"It's a must for us to do something," Hodits said. "A companywide decision is moving more barge traffic to our Festus plant while we'll be picking up more of the rail traffic here."

Since areas just south of the rail yard are prone to flooding, those tracks will be raised to the height of the Diversion Channel bridge. By mid-April the track north of the bridge will be raised by three feet at a cost of $200,000, which will be funded by the SEMO Port Authority. The track on the south side of the bridge will be raised by between five and six feet at a cost of $1.1 million, which will come from funding from the recent stimulus act passed by Congress. If the money is approved by the Missouri Department of Transportation, work on that section will begin in June and should be complete by October. Overbey is confident the funding will be approved.

If funding is not approved, Overbey said, the project could be delayed by a year. He said some or all of the money would have to borrowed.

"Just a few feet is enough to flood the area to the point where Buzzi may lose two to three weeks of operation," Overbey said. "When you use just 25 cars to ship your cement it's not that big of a deal. But when you are shipping using 250 cars, then a shutdown for a few weeks can mean a loss to a lot of your customers that you serve throughout the country."

While Buzzi Unicem USA is the primary user of the track, Overbey said, other companies use the track, including Pavestone, SEMO Milling and several oil companies that handle ethanol.

Even before Buzzi Unicem USA began operations in Cape Girardeau, cement production had a long-standing presence in the area.

After discovering Cape Girardeau had abundant limestone reserves near the Mississippi River in 1906, geologist C.J. Crawford moved to the city a year later to begin construction on a cement manufacturing facility. Calcium, the main ingredient for cement, is found in limestone.

Within three years the Cape Girardeau Portland Cement Co. began operations.

Over the years the plant changed ownership but remained at the same location. In 1923 the Marquette Co. acquired the plant and expanded it. LoneStar Industries Inc. purchased the Marquette Co. in 1982, and 17 years later German-based Dyckerhoff AG bought the plant.

A few years later Italian-owned Buzzi Unicem gained control of 75 percent of Dyckerhoff. When the company reorganized its U.S. operations in 2004 it merged its RC Cement with Dyckerhoff's LoneStar Industries to form Buzzi Unicem USA.

"Buzzi is a basic, backbone manufacturing company," he said. "They provide 150 jobs in this community and cement to many parts of the nation. It's a great thing we have."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

bblackwell@semissourian.com

388-3628

Pertinent address:

2524 S. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau