TulsaPorts keep theeconomy moving

Even people who live close toTulsa Portsare often unaware of the barges steadily moving millions of tons of goods across the country

Andrew Ralston, theTulsa Portseconomic development director,said manypeople think the iconic Blue Whale is the biggest thing in the water around Catoosa.

“It’saunique story in that people around us don’t know we exist but people outside of Tulsa do know we exist,”he said. “Everybody who interacts with shipping on the inland river system knows about the Port of Catoosa.”

Despite its quiet outside appearance,Tulsa Ports is known nationally and internationally for its presence on the Oklahoma Waterways and eventual connection to the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico.

There are two locations in the Tulsa Ports’ operation, one just north of Catoosa and the other, muchnewer one, in Inola.The Port of Catoosa is a 2,500-acre shipping and industrial park complex that houses 70 businesses and about 3,000 workers collectively.The Port of Inola has asimilar total acreage footprint but is still being developed, with 2,200available acres.

Only about 17 of the companies situated on the Port of Catoosa use the waterway or railroad infrastructure.The other companies lease that land to have prime position that is close to asource of raw materials.

“Weship about two million tons of materials in and out by barge every year,” Ralston said.

Ralston said about 90% of goods that come through the Port of Catoosa are agricultural. Pelletized fertilizer, liquid fertilizer,and grain (mainly soybeans and wheat) from manydifferent states, are some of the most-shipped products.

Steel makes up muchofthe rest of the traffic. “Wealso ship oversizeand over dimensional products,”Ralston said.

Sometimes, waterways are the only waytotransportmassive, heavy objects suchaswindmill towers.

“When large machinery is fabricated, we ship it out via our main dockaswell as our low-water wharf.Those are products that can’t necessarily be shipped over the road.

“A lot of those structures are built inTulsa, but the only wayitgets out is through the waterways because of the size of the product.”

Tulsa Portsare built to handle massive shipments efficiently

“One regular hopper barge can carry 1,500tons and is approximately 195feet long,” Ralston said. “That’sthe equivalent of approximately 60 (18-wheeler) trucks. One towboat can move 12 barges on our system. Eachtowboat, with three diesel engines, can move the equivalent of 720 trucks in one movement.”

The Port of Catoosa opened in 1971.Inanormal shipping year,about 1,000 barges pass

through.

“We’ve done alot of work to makePortofCatoosa one of the premiere and largest inland port/industrial park in the nation,”Ralston said.

With Catoosa going strong, focus is shifting towards building up the Port of Inola, whichTulsa Portsacquired in 2019 from Public Service CompanyofOklahoma.

“Now we’reworking to fill that site with job creation and manufacturing,”Ralston said. “Weare looking at companies that want anywhere between 100acres to 1,500acres for one project and could create thousands of jobs in each development.Tulsa Port of Inola is the future of economic development for the Tulsa Region.

Green Country Habitat for Humanity (Tulsa) is driving ambitious plans to address the dire need for new affordable housing in Tulsa’sunderserved communities.

We partner with anetwork of community-based financial institutions so familiescan receiveabelow market fixed-rate mortgage paired with forgivable down payment assistance based on need.