PEORIA, Ill. — Corn Belt Ports, founded in 2019 to expand support for sustainable waterborne commerce along the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers, has opened a new office in Peoria. 

On Thursday, November 30, Heart of Illinois Regional Port District (HOIRPD) officials, along with representatives from the Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Corn, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and city, state and federal elected officials, cut the ribbon on the new office, which is located directly across from City Hall in downtown Peoria. Corn Belt Ports will share the new office space in Twin Towers Place with the HOIRPD and the newly established Illinois Waterway Ports Commission.

“Since the Corn Belt Ports initiative was established in 2019, the Illinois waterway has received nearly $1 billion in additional federal and state multi-modal transportation and natural infrastructure investments,” said Peoria Mayor Dr. Rita Ali, who helped lead the ribbon cutting ceremony. “The Corn Belt Ports handle nearly 100 million tons of freight every year. The 2022 recognition of the Illinois waterway as a top-fifty power port signifies the importance of the Corn Belt Ports to move massive (amounts of) freight thereby attracting additional investments.”

Corn Belt Ports represents the five federally recognized ports within the Corn Belt’s lock and dam system, and includes regional ports on the Illinois River in Havana, Ottawa and Seneca, along with the Heart of Illinois Port and Illinois Valley Regional Port. In 2022, the Illinois Waterway Ports saw a 10.3 percent increase in freight tonnage handled, with year-after-year growth expected to continue. 

According to Robert Sinkler, executive coordinating director for Corn Belt Ports, more new investment is expected, most notably over the next two years while federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding is still available. In addition, the USACE Mississippi River Commission has extended its full support for elevated and sustained investment in infrastructure development and river channel maintenance in the Illinois waterway.

More federal funding for river and streambank conservation is also expected to flow into the waterway. “We are expecting around $100 million for ecosystem restoration on the Illinois River in the next two years,” Sinkler said. 

On hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony representing agriculture were Brad Stotler, director of public policy for Illinois Corn, and Rodney Knittel, associate director of transportation and infrastructure for the Illinois Farm Bureau. Both spoke briefly during the ceremony, which was followed by a tour of the new office suite. 

“You can’t have Corn Belt Ports without corn,” said Stotler. “We are the number one soybean growing state and the number two corn growing state in the nation, and we grow about 2 billion bushels of corn here in Illinois. We use about half of that domestically, but the other half gets shipped to other parts of the country and around the world. The importance of these ports to our farmers and the state economy can not be underestimated.” 

Knittel, who is a board member of the Upper Mississippi-Illinois-Missouri Rivers Association in addition to his role with the farm bureau, praised the Corn Belt Ports team for their efforts in targeting and securing funding for important river infrastructure and ecosystem upgrades.

“Obviously the river is so important to Illinois and Illinois agriculture, whether that’s exporting our corn and soybeans or (other ag products) to other countries or bringing in imports. For so many years, appropriations were not always great. Now we have statistical information and a port we can talk about when we go to Washington, D.C. or go to Springfield, and concrete information about the importance of Illinois agriculture in the rivers and the value they have,” he said.

While praising those present for their hard work on behalf of river transportation, Knittel cautioned that much work remains to be done, particularly in the area of funding for lock and dam restoration and upgrades. “Having a 600-foot lock is like having a two-lane bridge coming across the Illinois River. I can’t wait for the day when there is a 1,200-foot lock in the (USACE) Rock Island District; that should be the goal here in this area,” he said. 

In closing, Sinkler noted the support of Illinois Corn, Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Soybean Association in helping develop the HIORPD and Corn Belt Ports. “Organizations like this gave us the courage early on to step out and try and make this initiative into reality,” he said.