Ground broken for Helberg Drive

The Duluth Seaway Port Authority had a groundbreaking ceremony in October for Helberg Drive, a $5.2 million road being dedicated to Davis Helberg, former Duluth Port director and one of the nation's leading advocates for the Great Lakes maritime industry. Northland Constructors, Duluth, was awarded the construction contract by the city for the nearly one-mile project. Helberg Drive will be on Duluth's Rice's Point, providing improved road and railroad access to Port facilities.

Railroad improvements were necessary for the construction of Helberg Drive and will include upgrading rail and switching operations to provide better access to existing and future industries. Rail service will be improved by consolidating rail operations where possible while maintaining existing shared operations in the Port area between the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and Canadian Pacific (CP) Railways.

Helberg Drive will also provide an alternative route for high-wide, heavy-haul cargoes moving through the Port. Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc., operator of the Clure Public Marine Terminal, has established a reputation worldwide for handling oversized project cargoes such as tar sands removal equipment and wind energy components.

The State Transportation Improvement Project programmed $3.75 million for this project in fiscal year 2005. Local funds will provide the remaining money for this project and will be provided by the Duluth Seaway Port Authority and the City of Duluth.

Helberg began his career as a Great Lakes deck hand in 1958 and worked as a vessel agent, newspaper reporter, Port public relations director, pilotage manager and stevedoring company president before becoming Port director in January 1979. After 24 years as executive director, Helberg continues to serve on numerous regional and national maritime committees and organizations.

Northland Constructors plans to have the road-building project completed by the fall of 2006.

Northern Crops Institute visits Port

The Northern Crops Institute's Grain Procurement Management for Importers group visited the Port in October, an annual occasion. This year's contingent included grain buyers representing Israel, China, Oman, Vietnam, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Malta, Spain, Poland, Portugal and Mexico. The program is designed to help the buyers make U.S. grain purchasing decisions.

The door is always open!

In addition to the Northern Crops Institute grain procurement program (above), the Port Authority hosted several other fall visitors, including:

U.S. Wheat Associates, Cape Town, brought a South African/West African wheat buyers group to the Port, where participants from South Africa, Senegal, Ghana and Swaziland made appointments at Duluth export facilities and spent the day learning how the Port's logistical systems tie together.

Members of the Dewitt County (Ill.) Farm Bureau visited the Port to learn about our grain elevator operations.

The Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute had advisory meetings here, including a habor tour aboard the maritime research vessel Blue Heron.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation sent its District Engineers and top management personnel for a review of port operations.

MAST International brought agricultural trainees from Brazil, the Republic of South Africa, Germany, Honduras, France, Zimbabwe, Finland, Bolivia, Ukraine, Poland and Bulgaria to learn about grain shipping and handling operations. Formerly called the Minnesota Agricultural Student Trainee program, MAST is an international agricultural exchange program at the University of Minnesota providing practical and academic training in American agricultural and horticultural production.

The Minnesota Turkey Growers Association brought its board of directors here for information on agricultural connections in the Port.

University of Minnesota Humphrey Fellows representing Peru, India, Niger, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, Serbia and Montenegro, Brazil, Laos, Bhutan, Viet Nam, Rwanda and China visited to learn how organizations work together on community issues such as port development.

Elderhostel, the world's largest education travel organization for adults 55 and over, brought two groups to tour the Port as part of "adventures in lifelong learning."

Minneapolis Robotic Team research students stopped by to learn about how the St. Lawrence Seaway System —Highway H20 — connects the Port of Duluth-Superior to worldwide markets.

The University of Minnesota's U.S. Department of Agriculture Newly Independent State Faculty Exchange Program stopped by with professors from Russia, Bulgaria and Tunisia for an overview of Port operations.

Fifteen North Dakota Statue University civil engineering students visited for a program on Port facilities and structures.

Twelve South Dakota State University electrical engineering students visited to study arbor industrial facilities.

The American Society for Quality held its annual meeting at the Port Authority, bringing 20 representatives from local companies here for a Port overview and information on the Port Authority's involvement with industrial development activities.

The 472-foot, 410-passenger German cruise vessel Columbus visited Duluth three times in September. Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson joined in a welcoming ceremony for Captain Ralf Zander at the vessel's berth adjacent to the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.

Other than that, it was a pretty quiet fall here in the Twin Ports.

Terminals win Pacesetter Awards

Two terminals at the Port of Duluth-Superior — Hallett Dock Co. and Lake Superior Warehousing Inc. — received St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation Robert J. Lewis Pacesetter Awards this year. The award recognizes terminals that have increased shipments through the Seaway to international markets.

U.S. Seaway Administrator Albert Jacquez (left in photo above) presented the awards to Hallett Dock Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Bill McGiffert (second from left) and Lake Superior Warehousing General Manager Gary Nicholson (joined by Port Director Adolph Ojard) during a Forestry Products Workshop in August at the port. The forestry products workshop sought to increase waterborne movement of paper pulp, timber, and other wood products throughout the Great Lakes Seaway System.

The Twin Ports of Duluth-Superior, the System's perennial top tonnage port for iron ore and coal and U.S. leader for grain, have eagerly pursued forest commodities transport in recent years. In July, Duluth exported through Lake Superior Warehousing its first shipment of wood pulp to Europe.

New innards, new name

The Kinsman Independent, sold in March 2005 to Canada's McKeil Fleet, is receiving a new engine, generator, gearboxes, propeller and shaft in Hamilton, Ont., and will be ready to sail next August under her new name, Voyageur Independent. She was the last American-flag straight-deck bulk carrier still operating on the Great Lakes when she made her final call as the Kinsman Independent to the Port of Duluth-Superior in December of 2002. The laker, then 50 years old, carried the grain from Duluth_Superior to Buffalo, N.Y., where owner Great Lakes Associates, Inc., Cleveland, off-loaded it over the winter.

The mighty Mac, one last time

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw visited Duluth in October for what could be her last time. If she does not need to assist the Alder (the smaller buoy-tender icebreaking vessel home-ported in Duluth) in breaking ice this winter, she won't need to come back. A new Mackinaw was launched on April 2, 2005, and a "New Mackinaw Commissioning/Old Mackinaw Decommissioning Ceremony" is scheduled for June of 2006.