PORT OFFICIALS AWAIT NASH ROAD OPENING

SCOTT CITY -- The Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority last year "bobbed around break-even" as barge activity declined and rail traffic increased, port director Dan Overbey said.

But the expected Aug. 15 opening of Nash Road, which will provide direct access to Interstate 55, may elevate the port to its next level, he said. Direct access to the interstate will make it easier to serve a larger market by attracting industry, Overbey explained.

The promise of Nash Road helped convince Consolidated Barge and Grain to move to the port. Consolidated is expected to open a grain elevator that could store up to 230,000 bushels transportable by barge, rail and highway.

Overbey said the elevator will help put the port on a more even financial footing. "If we can land another two or three good-sized industries with large amounts of river and rail traffic, I think we can probably call ourselves a success," he said.

Consolidated has started preparing land for construction. It is scheduled to open about the same time as Nash Road.

The port experienced almost a 65 percent decline in freight handled last year: It dropped from 362,574 tons in 1995 to 248,313 in 1996. Overbey said some of that was a result of a rise in petroleum coke prices that forced the Sikeston Power Plant to revert to burning coal, which is brought in by rail.

That drop in barge activity was offset by an unexpected rise in rail traffic. The port authority bought a rail line that services the port and was expecting to run at a $40,000-a-year loss for the next few years, Overbey said. The first year of rail operation did operate at a loss but traffic picked up this year.

Work on the $8.5 million Nash Road project began in 1994. The 4.2-mile road is in the last phase of construction, said Missouri Department of Transportation project manager DawnRae Clark Fuller. Chester Bross Construction Co. was awarded the final $2.6 million contract Jan. 24 for earthwork and paving of the remaining 3.8 miles. The work is to be finished by Aug. 15 or comes under a penalty clause of $3,200 a day. Clark Fuller said the department expected to spend about $3.8 million for paving.

The project included a bridge over Ramsey Creek and a railroad overpass near the port.

Highway engineers are studying the possibility of redesigning the Nash Road interchange with I-55.

The port has spent more than $250,000 on the road project. That includes land for the road, 12 acres of cropland to replace six acres of wetland destroyed in construction, and engineering and environmental surveys.