Agricultural Maritime Export Facility

Background

The DeLong Co., Inc. completed the development of an intermodal bulk vessel agricultural commodity transload facility, a public-private partnership including USDOT MARAD, WISDOT HAP, and Port Milwaukee, on Jones Island at Port Milwaukee. This facility is the single largest investment in Port Milwaukee in several decades and will serve to transport Wisconsin–grown agricultural products to customers worldwide. Foth served as DeLong’s partner to help bring their vision to reality.

Approach

We worked with The DeLong Co. and Port Milwaukee to secure a $15.9M MARAD grant and a $4.9M Wisconsin Harbor Assistance Grant to help to fund the project. The property was redeveloped to meet the needs of DeLong, which included rail and truck unloading facilities, conveyance and loading infrastructure, storage buildings, and stormwater control. Our team provided stormwater control design; geotechnical and structural foundation design; electrical power, distribution, and controls engineering; environmental and construction permitting; and grant management assistance.

The transload facility includes rail and truck receiving hoppers connected to a conveyance system including elevators to transport the material into the storage building. Storage capacity in the building is approximately 30,000 metric tons (1,700,000 bushels). A reclaim system takes stored material and conveys it for bulk loading into covered bulk material cargo vessels at a rate of up to 40,000 bushels per hour. The initial use will be for the sale and transport of dried-distiller’s grain with soluble (DDGs) and added vertical storage structures are planned to handle other agricultural products. Total system storage is just over 50,000 metric tons (2,700,000 bushels).

Results

The facility is an important addition to the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Seaway (GLSLS) system and handles various agricultural commodities delivered by truck, rail and international vessel. Its completion opens Wisconsin’s maritime and agricultural economies to new international markets for its products, benefiting the region, state, and beyond. Construction was completed in Spring 2023 with the facility in full operation in the Summer 2023.