Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce members received an update on the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority's upgrades to the SEMO Port during the monthly First Friday Coffee last week.

"[SEMO Ports] are important here, and to the rest of the world," Port executive director Cary Harbison said. "Southeast Missouri actually reaches out and touches areas large distances away from here — we're not just a small-oriented entity."

The SEMO Port is located near Scott City on the Mississippi River, midway between St. Louis and Memphis, Tennessee.

The port handles about 1 million barge tons of product annually. Another 300,000 to 400,000 tons of product are shipped out by truck and rail.

Harbison said construction is progressing on one of the company's large, ongoing projects, "the loop track terminal."

The project includes the construction of two loop tracks and a terminal, Harbison said, with each loop measuring more than 2 miles long individually, and includes all connection tracks, dumps and barge loadout facilities.

"When construction is complete, [the loop track terminal] will add an additional 6 miles of track to the single-port railroad, and it'll also allow the single-port railroad to efficiently handle 100-plus-pound-unit car trains without breaking them up into cuts of cars," Harbison said. "The main goal is to really efficiently be able to move that product in by train, and out by barge to eliminate truck traffic."

But, to make all of that possible, Harbison said large amounts of reconstruction must first be done on ports and various parts of the river to accommodate construction and development standards.

The company recently wrapped-up construction on the first portion of the project — the addition of a new lease track into the port with a 25-foot grade difference to the previous track, which was required to meet the design standards for the loop tracks.

Harbison said the company is now moving on to the next step: loop track construction.

Advertisement for bids on the SEMO Port Loop Track Terminal Construction are due by 1 p.m. May 5.

For more information on the project, visit www.semoport.com. The Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority is located at 10 Bill Bless Drive in Scott City, and may be reached at (573) 264-4045 or semoport@semoport.com.

The Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its May First Friday Coffee on May 7. For more information on upcoming events, visit www.business.capechamber.com.