The Henderson County Riverport Authority is now operating a new electric material handler, a piece of equipment that is a part of a $2.2 million infrastructure improvement project officials say will reduce congestion at the port and save customers money.
The new machinery resembles an excavator that has a clam shell, and will be much more nimble in some of the unloading that occurs at the riverport, said riverport Executive Director Ben Weithman in a Thursday interview with the Hendersonian.
For example, whereas a crane falls via gravity and clumps on a barge’s floor, an operator of the electric material handler can control the clam shell to where it needs to be and then it can dig into and break apart any of the materials with much more precision than the riverport’s crane, Weithman said.
The electric material handler’s model is the Sennebogen 865E, and it came at a cost of $2.03 million.
Weithman said the investment increases “operational capacity and efficiency.”
“By reducing seasonal bottlenecks, our customers benefit from lower demurrage costs” Weithman said in a release. “Moving bulk unloading off the main dock also helps extend the service life of our 40-year-old, 125-ton cable crane, which has been the backbone of riverport operations for decades.”
The majority of what the riverport unloads include fertilizer, aggregate, scrap, pet coke and alumina, Weithman said, adding that HCRA unloads between 275,000 and 350,000 tons per year.
And most of the riverport’s customers work directly with the riverport, meaning there aren’t as many middlemen as other places, and they tend to come to the riverport to pick up their shipment quickly, usually in a matter of days up to a month, said Weithman.
In addition to acquiring the electric material handler, additional costs for the project that started in May 2024 included construction of a concrete staging pad and upgrading electrical service at the docks, said the release.
Grant funding accounted for $2.108 of the total while the riverport provided $93,252.
The bulk of that funding came from a $1.5 million grant from the Kentucky Public Riverport Construction and Maintenance program. Through the program, $15 million was allotted to the 10 Kentucky riverports. When some didn’t use all of their allotment, those riverports returned the unused money, which allowed the local riverport to take in an additional $532,000 for the purchase, according to the release.
Another feature of the electric material handler is that it is equipped with tracks, can move away from the from the dock and can load materials onto train cars at the nearby train tracks that run close to the docks, Weithman said.
Coming up, the HCRA, along with others a part of the Kentucky Riverports Association, will begin to lobby the General Assembly. That group is hoping for $30 million funding coming out of this year’s General Assembly to be split among the 10 Kentucky riverport, Weithman said.
Weithman said if funded, one of the top priorities for HCRA is to invest in bulk storage followed by dock repairs, which would include resurfacing.
