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Minnesota Port Development Assistance Program
The need
The physical infrastructure of Minnesota’s River and Lake Superior public commercial ports have been in need of rebuilding and updating to keep Minnesota competitive with other port states. Some of the projects are too large for the local port authority to finance on their own.
The solution
Recognizing this need, the 1996 Minnesota Legislature began funding the Port Development Assistance Program. This program involves a maximum state match of 80% and local minimum of 20% for these port improvements. The Ports & Waterways Section of MnDOT administers the program.
As of December 2010, the State of Minnesota has appropriated a total of $21 million toward this program, which includes such projects as:
- dredging in the dock areas
- dock wall reconstruction
- building rehabilitation
- improving road and rail access and bringing facilities up to safety code
- aiding the private sector as they operate most all of the public facilities
The Mississippi River System
The Mississippi River System stretches over 222 miles in Minnesota and supports five port areas whose combined 2011 waterway transported tonnage was 10.6 million net tons.
Minnesota’s largest river tonnage commodities are agricultural products such as corn, soybeans and wheat. The river accounts for over 60% of Minnesota’s agricultural exports.River ports also handle other dry cargo commodities such as coal, fertilizer, minerals, salt, cement, steel products, scrap metals and liquid products including petroleum, caustic soda, vegetable oils and molasses.
The Minnesota river navigational system is maintained by the U.S. Corps of Engineers and dredges the navigation channels and operates the 29 locks on the Upper Mississippi River. The locks serve both the commercial operators and recreational boaters. The commercial barge operators on the river pay for ½ of the cost of major Federal lock construction with a fuel user tax which is now 20 cents per gallon.
Annual Minnesota River Port Tonnage
| Port | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
| Minneapolis | 645,445 | 592,404 | 545,840 |
781,155 |
795,372 |
1,069,238 |
1,024,877 |
| St. Paul | 5,247,992 | 5,160,120 | 5,071,864 |
3,469,383 |
5,126,732 |
5,511,445 |
5,462,801 |
| Savage | 1,844,711 | 2,411,361 | 2,777,677 |
1,705,650 |
3,201,406 |
3,214,351 |
3,018,613 |
| Red Wing | 924,060 | 807,021 | 735,417 |
631,870 |
851,692 |
920,610 |
787,883 |
| Winona | 1,969,712 | 1,922,462 | 1,672,630 |
1,573,239 |
2,099,746 |
2,204,375 |
2,008,029 |
| Total | 10,631,920 | 10,893,368 | 10,803,428 |
8,160,297 |
12,074,948 |
12,920,019 |
12,302,203 |
•Annual tonnages will vary due to seasonal flooding, freight rates and foreign grain demand
Lake Superior / Great Lakes / St. Lawrence Seaway
Minnesota has four ports on Lake Superior including Taconite Harbor, Silver Bay, Two Harbors and Duluth/Superior. Their combined waterway transported tonnage for 2011 was just short of 60 million net tons. World steel production is recovering and taconite shipping on the Great Lakes from Minnesota’s mines has increased again in 2011 to about 38.5 million net tons. This tonnage figure accounted for 64% of Minnesota’s total tonnage transported on Lake Superior in 2011. Taconite is mined in north-eastern Minnesota and shipped mainly via the Great Lakes to steel mills in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Western coal has been the leading commodity shipped from Duluth/Superior since 2005, but in 2011 due to the increased taconite shipments, coal is now the second leading tonnage in the Port.
Other commodities handled by the Port of Duluth/Superior include cement, steel products, limestone, salt and wind generator components. Most of the products transported via the Lake have been on the rise over the last several years, except for 2009. The Port of Two Harbors handles only outbound taconite. The Port of Silver Bay handles inbound coal for a power plant and outbound taconite. And currently Taconite Harbor only handles inbound coal for a power plant.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates three of the 16 locks on the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway and maintains a 29 foot deep channel throughout this system. The Canadian government operates and maintains the other 13 locks.
Ships that operate only on the Great Lakes are called “Lakers”. Some of the Lakers range in length to over 1000 feet, are 105 feet wide and carry a cargo of 69,000 tons. Any Ship or Laker operating on the Great lakes can load to no more that 26’6” draft in normal conditions. Since 1999, lake levels have been so low that they have reduced ship tonnage by as much as 6,000 tons per trip. Less tonnage results in higher freight costs per ton.
Annual Minnesota Great Lakes Tonnage
| Port | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
| Duluth/Superior | 37,101,554 | 39,804,806 | 31,210,918 |
45,640,001 |
47,858,484 |
47,234,022 |
45,943,855 |
| Two Harbors | 16,070,740 | 13,892,225 | 6,222,014 |
13,302,382 |
13,736,351 |
14,447,328 |
13,216,000 |
| Silver Bay | 5,818,286 | 6,617,247 | 3,384,622 |
7,217,823 |
5,487,958 |
4,814,261 |
5,787,772 |
| Taconite Harbor | 806,000 | 663,934 | 709,108 |
859,868 |
914,022 |
939,065 |
769,537 |
| Total | 59,796,580 | 60,978,212 | 41,526,662 |
67,056,074 |
67,996,815 |
67,434,676 |
65,717,164 |
•Annual tonnages will vary due to low water, ice conditions and commodity demand
Waterway Publications
- 2011 River Terminals (PDF 6 MB)
- Minnesota's Lake Superior's Terminals - April 2011 (PDF 10 MB)
- River Transportation in Minnesota - Summer 2001 (PDF 20.3 MB)
- Monetary Cost of a Modal Shift - March 1997 (PDF 153 KB)
- Environmental Impacts of a Modal Shift - January 1991 (PDF 1.4 MB)
- Modal Shifts from the Mississippi River and Duluth/Superior to Land Transportation - 2004 (PDF 1.67 MB)