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Minnesota Port Development Assistance Program
The need
The physical infrastructure of Minnesota’s River and Lake Superior public port terminals have been in need of rebuilding and updating to keep Minnesota competitive with other waterway states.
The solution
Recognizing this need, the 1996 Minnesota Legislature began funding the Port Development Assistance Program. The Program involves a maximum state match of 80% and a local match of 20% for each port improvement project. The Ports & Waterway Section of MnDOT administers the Program.
To date the State has invested $25 million in terminal infrastructure improvements of its public ports on Lake Superior and the Mississippi River. Projects include:
- Dredging in the dock areas
- Dock wall construction
- Building rehabilitating or new construction
- Improving road and rail access to port areas
- Upgrading to meet safety codes
- (The private sector benefits as they operate all public port facilities)
The Mississippi River System
The Mississippi River System stretches over 222 miles into and along Minnesota’s border and supports 5 port areas whose combined 2012 tonnage was 10.7 million net tons.
Minnesota’s largest river tonnage commodities are agricultural products such as corn, soybeans and wheat. The river accounts for over 50% of Minnesota’s agricultural exports. In 2012 Minnesota shipped over 4.4 million tons of grain down the river. Our River ports also handle other dry commodities including fertilizer, cement, sand and gravel, salt, coal, scrap metal for recycling and steel. Liquid products include petroleum, caustic soda, vegetable oils, molasses and anhydrous ammonia.
The Mississippi River Navigation System is maintained by the U.S. Corps of Engineers. They dredge the width and depth of the channel to accommodate 9 foot deep barges, and they operate the 29 locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi. The locks are also used by recreational boaters at no cost. The commercial barge operators on the River pay a user fee of 20 cents per gallon of fuel purchased. These dollars are used to pay for ½ of major Federal lock structure improvements.
Annual Minnesota River Port Tonnage
| Port | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
| Minneapolis | 671,691 | 645,445 | 592,404 | 545,840 |
781,155 |
795,372 |
1,069,238 |
| St. Paul | 5,551,737 | 5,247,992 | 5,160,120 | 5,071,864 |
3,469,383 |
5,126,732 |
5,511,445 |
| Savage | 1,921,603 | 1,844,711 | 2,411,361 | 2,777,677 |
1,705,650 |
3,201,406 |
3,214,351 |
| Red Wing | 836,497 | 924,060 | 807,021 | 735,417 |
631,870 |
851,692 |
920,610 |
| Winona | 1,697,955 | 1,969,712 | 1,922,462 | 1,672,630 |
1,573,239 |
2,099,746 |
2,204,375 |
| Total | 10,679,483 | 10,631,920 | 10,893,368 | 10,803,428 |
8,160,297 |
12,074,948 |
12,920,019 |
•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 tonnage for 2012 was just over 61 million tons, about 1.2 million tons more than 2011.World steel production is improving, which is increasing taconite demand on the Great Lakes. Great Lakes Taconite shipped from Minnesota amounted to over 40 million tons in 2012, a 2.4 million ton increase over 2011. Taconite amounted to 67% of Minnesota’s Great Lakes tonnage in 2012. Taconite is mined in northeast Minnesota and shipped via the Great Lakes to steel mills in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Port of Two Harbors is the leading taconite export dock in Minnesota at 16,547,843 net tons in 2012.
Western coal is the second leading commodity shipped from Duluth/Superior in 2012 at 14,129,546 net tons. This is down about 1.3 million tons from 2011, reflecting a switch to natural gas for some power plants in the system. This trend will continue, but more coal will now be shipped to fill overseas demand.
Other commodities handled by the Port of Duluth/Superior include over 1 million tons of grain shipped out, cement, salt, steel, limestone and wind generator components.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers operates three of the sixteen 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 thirteen locks.
Ships that operate only on the Great Lakes are called “Lakers”. Some of the Lakers range to over 1,000 feet in length, 105 feet wide and have a capacity of 65-70,000 net tons at 26’6” draft, the maximum draft allowed. Since 1999, lake levels on the Great Lake System have been low, primarily due to drought, restricting ship tonnage by as much as 6,000 tons per trip. Less tonnage per trip results in higher freight costs per ton to the carrier and to the shipper.
Annual Minnesota Great Lakes Tonnage
| Port | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
| Duluth/Superior | 36,673,052 | 37,101,554 | 39,804,806 | 31,210,918 |
45,640,001 |
47,858,484 |
47,234,022 |
| Two Harbors | 16,547,843 | 16,070,740 | 13,892,225 | 6,222,014 |
13,302,382 |
13,736,351 |
14,447,328 |
| Silver Bay | 7,142,154 | 5,818,286 | 6,617,247 | 3,384,622 |
7,217,823 |
5,487,958 |
4,814,261 |
| Taconite Harbor | 657,700 | 806,000 | 663,934 | 709,108 |
895,868 |
914,022 |
939,065 |
| Total | 61,020,749 | 59,796,580 | 60,978,212 | 41,526,662 |
67,056,074 |
67,996,815 |
67,434,676 |
•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)