Tulsa World: Port tonnage far below totals of '08, '07

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Port tonnage far below totals of '08, '07
A recent increase in steel shipments is called a good economic signal.

A barge sits in a docking area at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa. With the slow economy, this year's cargo tally at the facility is unlikely to top the totals of more than 2 million tons recorded in each of the last two years. JAMES GIBBARD / Tulsa World

By KYLE ARNOLD World Staff Writer
Published: 11/21/2009 2:26 AM
Last Modified: 11/21/2009 4:32 AM

Shipping at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa fell in October, bringing about 10 percent less cargo than the same month in 2008.

Some 131,000 tons of cargo passed through the port, increasing the total for the year to 1.6 million tons. The port will need heavy traffic during November and December to top the totals of more than 2 million tons recorded in each of the last two years.

"We're seeing increases in steel, which is generally a good harbinger of increased economic activity for industrial sectors," said Ed Fariss, chairman of the City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority.

Port officials took the first steps this week in a plan to build a new facility for housing and maintaining the port's three locomotive engines.

The port's board of directors approved spending about $340,000 for 755 feet of railroad track and construction of a pit so maintenance workers can access the locomotives from below.

"We need something like this because we don't really have anywhere to store and work on the locomotives," Port Director Bob Portiss said. "For now we've been parking them next to a fertilizer facility, but fertilizer is caustic to metal."

Sometime next year Portiss plans to submit a $200,000 proposal to construct a building over the pit. That would give workers a better place to clean and repair the locomotives, Portiss said.

He hopes to have the facility finished by late next year.

Kyle Arnold 581-8380
kyle.arnold@tulsaworld.com By KYLE ARNOLD World Staff Writer

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