Steel Dynamics Inc. is building a more than $14 million rail line to deliver scrap metal from the West Bank Port on Old Macon Road to the company’s steel mill west of Columbus.
At the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday, County Administrator Jay Fisher presented the agreement for the project, which received environmental clearance last week.
The project is being partially funded by a $6.1 million grant Lowndes County Port Authority received in 2023 from the Maritime Administration’s Port Infrastructure Development Program. The board voted unanimously to accept the grant at Monday’s meeting.
SDI is paying the remaining $8 million for the project, Kevin Stafford, the North Mississippi manager for Neel-Schaffer engineering firm, told The Dispatch.
“It’s a grant that they got awarded over two years ago, and so we’re now at the point where they’re ready to start going towards construction,” Fisher said.
The project will involve constructing a rail spur and 10,000 linear feet of rail line, which will connect to an existing line operated by Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, Stafford said.
Once connected, scrap metal can be carried by 35 rail cars from the dock to the Steel Dynamics mill on Airport Road, adjacent to Golden Triangle Regional Airport.
Port Director Will Sanders said the project will be a benefit to SDI and to the community because of the increased efficiency it will bring to scrap hauling at the port.
“It’s very important,” Sanders said. “… It’s going to create more jobs, it’s going to increase the tonnage and increase revenue for the port. So all in all, it’s good for the community.”
Bryant Miller, transportation manager with SDI, said the port can currently unload about two barges a day onto trucks, which ends up being about 600,000 tons of scrap metal taken to the mill a year.
Miller said the new rail line is expected to increase that number to between 800,000 to more than 1 million tons of scrap metal moved to the plant annually.
While he doesn’t expect trucking to stop in its entirety at the port, Miller said it is expected to be scaled back once the rail line is entirely operational.
“It won’t completely eliminate truck traffic just because of a couple logistics reasons on plant sites,” Miller said. “… But it will allow us to remove the problem products that are getting loaded into trucks today.”
The project will help to alleviate recurring issues of falling scrap metal from trucks driving on the highway to get to the mill, Sanders and Miller agreed.
“I think, from a safety perspective and an environmental perspective for the neighborhood and the community, … us being willing to show our efforts into making improvements for … the issues we’ve had on the highway … I think that’s the most important part for us,” Miller said. “Whether it’s our responsibility or not, it is our material. We want it here on (the) plant site, without causing issues.”
Stafford said the project could have final designs completed as early as the end of the year and the hope is to begin construction next year and be completed by the end of 2027.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
