Cape Girardeau mayor Harry Rediger is in Memphis today for a Mississippi River community economic summit.
The conference is sponsored by the Delta Regional Authority and the Mississippi River Towns and Cities Initiative. Mayor Rediger joined the initiative earlier this year. It’s a group of 59 river mayors that focuses on controlling drought and flood on the river and developing infrastructure.
At this week’s conference, Rediger hopes to learn more about containerized shipping on the river. Currently, shippers transport goods in bulk on the river, and in containers on ocean going vessels.
Rediger says the expansion of the Panama Canal could open opportunities for Midwest ports.
“There are ports on the east coast and west coast that are filled and overflowing and are congested. It would be a real cost saving in addition to time saving to bring a lot of those containers up the river into mid-America rather than trucking or railing them from either coast,” Redinger said.
Rediger says some ports on the lower Mississippi River are experimenting with container-on-barge shipping, and believes the mid-Mississippi has the opportunity to do the same.