RIVER PORT SERVES CONCRETE COMPANY; TEMPLATES FOR SPAN BEING BUILT, SHIPPED

SCOTT CITY - The Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority has a temporary tenant, which Executive Director Allan Maki believes further illustrates the versatility of the port.

Egyptian Concrete of Salem, Ill., under an agreement worked out with the port's dock operator, is making prefabricated-concrete bridge-piling templates that will be installed in a new highway bridge over the Mississippi River near Alton, Ill.

About 12 employees of Egyptian are working at the dock, along with employees of Girardeau Stevedores and Contractors Inc., the public dock operator for the SEMO Port Authority.

Lanny Koch, president of Girardeau Stevedores, is using his equipment and employees to assist Egyptian with the project. Koch's company is providing all of the "hook work."

Egyptian is a subcontractor on the bridge at Alton and has to provide 12 of the templates, which are 30- by-38 feet, two-feet thick, and have 28 holes in each unit that are three feet in diameter. Each one weighs 150 tons.

The templates are being assembled on flat-top deck barges at the port. Four of them will be moved by river to Alton next month to the bridge site. Eight others will be built next spring.

"This type of project demonstrates the versatility of our public dock facility," said Maki. "The nature and requirements of this project require a vertical face dock and precision placement by cranes.

"We believe the jobs created and our ability to show we can deliver a variety of services will demonstrate our multipurpose ability at the SEMO Port Authority."

Maki said there is a lot of potential in making prefabricated items like the templates at the port and then shipping them by water to other places.

Another example of the port's versatility, Maki said, is the large tanks for Biokyawa that have been moved through the dock because it was not practical to ship them any other way.

"We have this kind of traffic at the port in addition to our bulk commodities," said Maki. "This is a kind of versatility many other ports just do not have."

Gerald Broom, executive vice president of Egyptian Concrete, said Saturday that his firm was using the port because of its "convenience and the assistance of Girardeau Stevedores and Lanny Koch."

Broom said employees would work at the port a few more weeks, and then come back and finish their job in the spring.

"This is kind of a unique project," said Broom. "Each one of these weighs 150 tons, and that is almost impossible to ship by land. Dimensionally it is too large to ship by land and physically it is too heavy for roadways."

Both Broom and Maki pointed out that the templates are part of a relatively new process in bridge building.

Broom explained the templates are "to displace the idea of using coffer dams and de-watering. It eliminates the need for that."

The templates are placed in the water and bridge pilings are driven through the holes. About eight feet of concrete is poured over each piling to hold it in place.

Broom explained that the purpose of the templates are "to provide proper spacing and slope of the piling. It guides it in the angle they want it driven and provides proper orientation of the piling."

Egyptian works on various projects around the Midwest, and although they have no other projects planned similar to this one, Broom said he would not hesitate to use the SEMO Port in the future.

"I am aware of nothing at the moment, but we are always looking for this type of thing," said Broom. "Of course, we will have the Cape terminal in mind as one of the possibilities to utilize when there is a project."

Broom said the SEMO Port could be used for a similar project his company might have 400 to 500 miles in any direction.

The temporary situation was arranged by Koch and Maki, but Port officials are hoping that Egyptian might someday lease land and become a permanent tenant of the port authority.

"We have discussed it and consider it a possibility," said Broom. "It is something we may do some day, but it is more than a year or two years away."

Egyptian employees have been at the port for over a week working, and began pouring concrete Friday. The templates need to be in Alton on Oct. 14.

Midwest Agri-Chemico, the first tenant at the port, has begun site preparation for the construction of a one-million-gallon liquid fertilizer tank.

Midwest presently moves most of the tonnage that comes through the port, and being able to move liquid fertilizer should increase their tonnage considerably, Maki said.

Sometime this week, the port authority will load iron sulfate onto box cars for Q.C. Corporation. Maki said the port has leased a rail siding from Union Pacific.

A rail spur into the port is under construction, but will not be completed until sometime next year.

Once the rail spur is completed, the port authority will have completed its first phase of development, funded through a capital improvement sales tax and several state and federal grants.