KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Port KC received $37 million from the fiscal-year 2024 state budget to renovate its existing Missouri River port, Terminal Woodswether in the West Bottoms, and build a second port in Kansas City, Missouri.
Port KC, a state-created economic-development engine that operates the Port of Kansas City and facilitates other development in the Kansas City area, reopened the city’s only current public port in the West Bottoms in 2015.
It will use $30 million in state funding to develop and grow the Missouri River Terminal, a second public port located at the former AK Steel mill plant near the convergence of the Blue and Missouri rivers.
Its design is based on Germany’s Port Duisburg, which is Europe’s largest inland port, Port KC said.
Port KC bought the 415-acre property, which is located north of Interstate 70 near I-435, five years ago. It has Missouri River and railroad access, including switching capability for five major railroads, but needed to develop better road access to the site, according to Port KC.
The $550,000,000 project, which will be completed in four phases, also has received federal grants in addition to money from Port KC and the state.
The other $7 million will be used to construct a new Terminal Woodswether dock in the West Bottoms, which “will double the volume of barge traffic at this location,” according to Port KC.
The seven-acre multi-modal facility connects the port directly with rail service and interstate access.
“We thank Governor Parson and the state legislators who support Port KC’s vision for these shovel-ready sites and their impact on the region and the state,” Port KC in a release about the ports-project funding.
With freight shipments in the U.S. expected to double by 2040, Port KC projected the need for additional port capacity because Kansas City is among “the fastest-growing industrial distribution and logistical hubs” in the country.
Kansas City trails only Chicago as Midwestern port destinations, according to Port KC.
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