Port of Blencoe - Iowa

[ita]

PROGRESS: NEW Cooperative to open barge port near Blencoe this spring

Dave Dresszen
BLENCOE, Iowa -- Barges return this spring to the upper stretch of the Missouri River for the first time in over 15 years, giving western Iowa farmers with a lower-cost option to access fertilizer and export grain.

NEW Cooperative is constructing a $11 million port along on the Missouri River, near the small Monona County town of Blencoe.

The NEW Cooperative Port of Blencoe will become the northernmost port on the nearly 760-mile span of the Missouri from St. Louis to Sioux City.

Officials with the Fort Dodge-based co-op say they hope to complete the project in the next two months.

They expect 70+ barges during navigation season, so get prepared to see barges on the Missouri this summer.

[Louie]

Tough to find where exactly this site is on Google Maps.

[ita]

Tough to find where exactly this site is on Google Maps.

Here the website: https://www.newcoop.com/locations/port-of-blencoe/

Address is 30382 Filbert Ave. Blencoe, IA 51523

[Louie]

Tough to find where exactly this site is on Google Maps.

Here the website: https://www.newcoop.com/locations/port-of-blencoe/

Address is 30382 Filbert Ave. Blencoe, IA 51523

Ope, good find.

[ita]

Well, it's open. I haven't been by the river much, so I haven't seen any barges recently, but I hope my kids can catch a glimpse of one when we are downtown. There is a video of the ceremony. Doesn't look like much, but hopefully it works out for farmers who can utilize it for grain and other crop transportation. We need to get clean energy barges asap though, if the Missouri starts getting more barge traffic.

Port of Blencoe reopens barge trade to Siouxland

Vivian Rennie
t has been 16 years since barges traveled up the Missouri into Siouxland.

But now farmers once again have the option to send their grain via the river.

An event two years and $11 million in the making, the Port Of Blencoe is now open along the Missouri River, about four miles west of that small Monona county town.

Here's another good article covering the Port of Blencoe: New Missouri River port offers more market opportunities for producers

[Busguy2010]

My grandma had a campsite around little sioux when I was a kid. I guess at least 16 years sounds like the last time I was there, but they had barges going north on the Missouri pretty often. That was a little south of this, now, so I wonder where they were coming from. I think I remember seeing a barge even at the Mormon bridge.

[MORiverOMA]

Howdy everyone!

Expanding on the discussion of this new port facility, I am happy to say that barge traffic is most definitely starting to pick up. I’ve always had a fascination with marine transportation, so I setup an AIS receiver station in my apartment downtown. AIS is a radio technology that ships use to identify themselves to land stations and each other. I feed my received data directly to MarineTraffic.com

@ita My station provides around 30 minutes warning of northbound barges to the Bob Kerrey and over two hours notice of anything coming southbound from Blencoe. Since my antenna is north-facing, it provides far better coverage in that direction. I can’t recommend the MarineTraffic app enough, it makes ship spotting a pleasure. It’s available for iOS and Android.

Currently, there is one very consistent movement. Eagle Materials, Inc. contracts with Missouri River Towing to move cement from their plant in Kansas City to a terminal just off JJ Pershing north of the airport. This move happens weekly on a 4-6 day cycle with the MV Gerald F Engemann usually the selected tugboat.

[ita]

Howdy everyone!

Expanding on the discussion of this new port facility, I am happy to say that barge traffic is most definitely starting to pick up. I’ve always had a fascination with marine transportation, so I setup an AIS receiver station in my apartment downtown. AIS is a radio technology that ships use to identify themselves to land stations and each other. I feed my received data directly to MarineTraffic.com

@ita My station provides around 30 minutes warning of northbound barges to the Bob Kerrey and over two hours notice of anything coming southbound from Blencoe. Since my antenna is north-facing, it provides far better coverage in that direction. I can’t recommend the MarineTraffic app enough, it makes ship spotting a pleasure. It’s available for iOS and Android.

Currently, there is one very consistent movement. Eagle Materials, Inc. contracts with Missouri River Towing to move cement from their plant in Kansas City to a terminal just off JJ Pershing north of the airport. This move happens weekly on a 4-6 day cycle with the MV Gerald F Engemann usually the selected tugboat.

Wow, awesome! Thanks for the information. How do I find your channel in the app?

[MORiverOMA]

Hey there!

You don’t “find” my channel per se. My AIS station feeds real-time data to the MarineTraffic app. If a vessel is being picked up it will appear with a pointed icon with a needle off the nose. Diamond icons are satellite positions.

Unfortunately for those of us on the Missouri, tracking ships real time is very difficult. The next closest AIS station is in Glasgow, Missouri. My station can track from roughly the I-80 bridge to Fort Calhoun, leaving a substantial gap from Omaha to Glasgow.

My station appears as a radar icon in the MarineTraffic app in downtown Omaha. Make sure you have “stations” selected in the filter.

If you would like to follow a daily list of all river traffic, search Missouri River Navigation on Facebook. The Army Corps posts a daily traffic report which you can the reconcile with the app.

For reference, the Bob Kerrey is river mile 617.5 … Blencoe is mile 681.

Have a great evening!

[ita]

Hey there!

You don’t “find” my channel per se. My AIS station feeds real-time data to the MarineTraffic app. If a vessel is being picked up it will appear with a pointed icon with a needle off the nose. Diamond icons are satellite positions.

Unfortunately for those of us on the Missouri, tracking ships real time is very difficult. The next closest AIS station is in Glasgow, Missouri. My station can track from roughly the I-80 bridge to Fort Calhoun, leaving a substantial gap from Omaha to Glasgow.

My station appears as a radar icon in the MarineTraffic app in downtown Omaha. Make sure you have “stations” selected in the filter.

If you would like to follow a daily list of all river traffic, search Missouri River Navigation on Facebook. The Army Corps posts a daily traffic report which you can the reconcile with the app.

For reference, the Bob Kerrey is river mile 617.5 … Blencoe is mile 681.

Have a great evening!

Thanks for the additional information. I will try to figure this out. My kids want to try to go boat watching sometime.

[MORiverOMA]

@ita

Gerald F Engemann arrived with cement yesterday and is currently unloading. She should head downriver today or tomorrow. Watch the app, and if she gets underway from the cement terminal, you have around 30 minutes to catch her at the Bob Kerrey. You can see the boat on MarineTraffic as a blue dot just north of Carter Lake. If you miss her at Bob Kerrey, another great spot to catch boats is Haworth Park in Bellevue.

Also, another 6-load tow started upriver from St. Louis today heading for Blair. Should pass Omaha in four days, maybe over the weekend.

Have fun!

[LookingGlass]

Here is one website to track marine traffic.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/
There are other sites out there. Pretty simple, just zoom in on the Omaha area to see what's on the Missouri.

[Louie]

Here is one website to track marine traffic.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/
There are other sites out there. Pretty simple, just zoom in on the Omaha area to see what's on the Missouri.

That is a fascinating resource.

[MORiverOMA]

And again, as I stated above, its MUCH easier to use the MarineTraffic app. The website is fine but if you have a smartphone the app is cleaner and easier to use.

[MORiverOMA]

Good morning everyone:

Well the port is definitely getting quite busy indeed. As we speak, two boats with a total of 10 loaded barges are heading north towards Blencoe. They should pass the Kerrey sometime this afternoon (Sept. 16th) or early evening. In fact, the two tows are trailing close behind one another, offering a chance to see both in rapid succession.


Keep on eye on MarineTraffic as they approach!

[Brad]

Here is one website to track marine traffic.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/
There are other sites out there. Pretty simple, just zoom in on the Omaha area to see what's on the Missouri.

Off Subject, but you can use that website to check out the big cargo ship mess going on in Long Beach California too.

[Louie]

Here is one website to track marine traffic.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/
There are other sites out there. Pretty simple, just zoom in on the Omaha area to see what's on the Missouri.

Off Subject, but you can use that website to check out the big cargo ship mess going on in Long Beach California too.

Just googling the port brings up some crazy photos of dozens and dozens of barging sitting in the bay.

[Brad]

I actually caught a barge tonight!

20211008881A0348.jpg

[MORiverOMA]

Here is Missouri River Towing’s brand-new acquisition MV Melba L. Engemann operating the cement shuttle a few days ago.
Taken at Haworth Park in Bellevue

[MORiverOMA]

This is MV Cleva Lee of Newt Marine Services upbound at the Kerrey on September 21st. Newt has a USACE engineering and dredging contract and has been a frequent site since arriving in a large tow in August. She is presently north of Blencoe doing bank engineering work. She will come south at some point, keep an eye on MarineTraffic to catch her.

[Brad]

Cool! Thanks for the info and photos!

[ita]

A farmer co-op thinks the return of barge traffic farther upstream on the Missouri River is good for business

Katie Peikes
Barges are back in western Iowa, floating cargo up and down the Missouri River – and giving area farmers a real shipping alternative for the first time since the early 2000s.

Western Iowa farmers have been able to send their goods to Europe and Asia, but not with the same ease as eastern Iowa farmers who have direct access to the Mississippi River – an artery for United States trade that ships 60 percent of all U.S. grain exports.

Farmers instead had to send their commodities by truck or rail to eastern Iowa, where they could then be shipped via the Mississippi River, and eventually to China or Japan.

It wasn’t always this way. Ports once thrived in Blencoe and Sioux City, some 40 miles upriver.

But Fort Dodge-based NEW Cooperative brought that access back to the region in mid-April with an $11 million barge terminal near Blencoe – the northernmost port along the Missouri River. The co-op unloaded its last barge of the season on Nov. 20, estimating that close to 80,000 tons of corn, soybeans and other products moved through the port.

During this shipping season, the Port of Blencoe saw around 35 barges come up and unload products – the majority of which was fertilizer. The port sent around 25 barges down the river loaded with things like dried distillers grains, soybeans and corn, the co-op said.

It's an older article, but nice follow up on how it performed in its first season.