NASH ROAD NOW OPEN; TRUCKS ESCORTED ON FIRST TRIP DOWN ROUTE AB

SCOTT CITY -- A fleet of five trucks, led by the Scott County Sheriff's Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol, made the first official trip down the new Route AB/Nash Road extension Friday at the SEMO Port.

"The road was built to serve industry. It was built for the trucks," said Dan Overbey, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority. "Everyone else is welcome on it, but it was built for the trucks and we wanted them to have it first."

The project to extend Route AB/Nash Road from Interstate 55 into the port took five years and almost $10 million.

"Basically it puts us on the map," Overbey said. "This puts the foundation, the basic infrastructure that we need in order to compete for industry."

The opening of the road, which makes the port accessible by roadway, air, rail and river, was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The port's two newest industries, Consolidated Grain and Barge and Missouri Fibre Corp., a subsidiary of Canal Wood Chip, also celebrated with ground-breaking ceremonies.

Without the road, officials from both companies indicated, they wouldn't have chosen to locate at SEMO Port.

"This has been a dream that we've talked about for eight or nine years now," said Roger Dowdy, general manager of corporate operations for Consolidated Grain and Barge, where a rail-to-barge terminal is now under construction. "It's very exciting to see all of this going on behind us about to become a reality."

The development of Nash Road "was the final link to building our facility here," Dowdy said.

The terminal should be operational by Jan. 1, Dowdy said.

"You see these types of things come together, and you don't realize all that goes on behind the scenes to make it a reality, to make it possible to have economic development in various parts of the country." said John Barfield, president of Canal Wood Corp. of Arkansas.

Officials praised the cooperation between state, federal, local and business entities in getting the project completed.

"The importance of what has happened here cannot be understated," said Scott Meyer, MoDOT District Engineer. "I think the importance of the public and private partnership that has developed throughout this project has been the key."

Linking the port, Interstate 55, the new road, the railroad and the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport "gives Southeast Missouri a tremendous advantage in what is now not just the regional economy and state economy, but the national and world economy," Meyer said.

Construction has only been under way on the Route AB/Nash Road project for five years, said state Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, but the impetus for the project "goes back 22 years to the formation of the first port authority board in the state of Missouri."

Kin Dillon, chairman of the port authority's board of commissioners, said the port is poised for continued growth.

"We ask that you all stay tuned, because there's more to come," he said.