INTERMODAL TRANSPORT MOVES AREA INTO FUTURE

Intermodal - it's more than a buzzword in today's massive transportation picture. It's the reason Cape Girardeau may by a viable player in the growing transportation network for goods and services. Intermodal means a combination of transportation modes are used to move a product - including rail, river, road, air and even pipeline.

All five of these types of transportation are located less than three miles from the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority in Scott City. This fact gives the region a competitive edge and a flexibility in attracting industry.

The river mode is the most obvious. The regional port operates a public dock facility. By year's end, the port will be connected with three major railroads when construction of its rail spur is completed. The port is also connected to Interstate 55, and within four years will have direct access to the interstate through a Nash Road extension. Three major pipelines owned by the Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. cross the Mississippi River near the port. The nearly Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport completes the local intermodal network.

The emphasis on intermodal comes from the top. A new federal emphasis on intermodal transportation helped to gain revenue for the Nash Road extension. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 1992 takes aim at making America more competitive in shipping its products around the globe.

Tonnage moving through the port authority continues to grow substantially. Net tonnage of 75,594 in 1992 represented a 52 percent increase. But port director Allan Maki said the real explosive growth will come with the addition of a grain elevator. The location of Consolidated Grain on port land is already approved, awaiting completion of the Nash Road project. With the grain elevator in production, Maki said tonnage of 200,000 to 300,000 is attainable in the next two years; tonnage of 500,000 to 700,000 is within reach by 1995, he said.

Similar numbers are enjoyed by two other port authorities in Southeast Missouri, both of which have operating grain elevators.

The Pemiscot County Port Authority in Caruthersville is the oldest in Southeast Missouri - operational about 10 years. Its total tonnage in 1992 was 461,774. The bulk of this tonnage is attributable to one grain and two fertilizer plants. It is the only port in the region without a rail spur. New Madrid County's Port Authority moves the most tonnage in Southeast Missouri - 975,000 tons in 1992. This tonnage comes almost exclusively from the Louis Dryfus Corp. rice mill and full grain operation. The New Madrid port became operational in 1988. Mississippi County's port authority is not yet operational.

The Southeast Missouri Regional Port authority is working toward a bigger slice of the pie with plans for an intermodal transfer facility near the port within the next few years. Now, rail containers filled in Cape Girardeau must be shipped to St. Louis to be loaded aboard railroad double stack cars.

Intermodal transportation is a natural concern for business. But it's not just business that benefits. It brings better, cheaper, and faster access to goods and markets both here and abroad, and that benefits all consumers. In other words, intermodal is a buzzword that affects the cost and availability of the products we buy, use and eat every day. Intermodal transportation - it's a word worth our attention.