About

June 2013

The creation of a regional freight district is recommended through the St. Louis Regional Freight Study and approved by the region’s metropolitan planning organization East-West Gateway Council of Government’s Board of Directors from throughout the bistate area. The study is conceived as a way of strengthening the economy of the St. Louis region while optimizing the network of cargo transportation throughout the bistate area and beyond.

April 2014

The first meeting of the Freight Working Group – a team focused on implementing the mission, goals, and reach of the bistate region’s new freight district – is held with the cooperation of a team of civic leaders and industry authorities from both sides of the Mississippi River.

September 2014

The St. Louis region’s freight district is launched as the premier system of managing and improving freight operations throughout the St. Louis area. Because the Bi-State Development agency is uniquely positioned as both an economic development leader and as an implementation arm for regional projects, it was selected by the East-West Gateway Council of Government’s Board of Directors in September to lead this freight initiative.

July 2015

Mary Lamie is hired by Bi-State Development as the Executive Director of the St. Louis region’s new freight district. Ms. Lamie is a professional engineer whose record includes over 25 years worth of experience in civil engineering, public transportation management, and funding strategies. Her experience brings a proven voice and direction to the forefront of the region’s freight district.

August 2015

With the support of the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Leadership Council of Southwestern Illinois released the 2015 Southwestern Illinois Freight Transportation Study. This study evaluated the bistate region’s freight system and significantly influenced the Freightway’s identification of opportunities to fortify and expand the region’s freight economy.

December 2015

The “St. Louis Regional Freightway” name and brand image are officially born. In tribute to the region’s “Gateway to the West” identity, the Freightway is solidified as a recognizable, go-to source for all things freight within the bistate area, and most importantly – Your Gateway to the World.

March 2017

The St. Louis Regional Freightway, America’s Central Port, St. Louis Port Authority and Kaskaskia Regional Port District and the Port of New Orleans entered into a Memorandum of Understanding in New Orleans, LA. This partnership is helping integrate the region’s supply chain with gulf coastal ports and has created an opportunity for steam ship lines to capitalize on the region’s competitive advantages and container on barge services.

October 2017

The St. Louis region’s port system is recognized as the country’s third largest inland port and the most efficient inland port. The region’s port system is responsible for 70 of the 855 miles (8 percent) of the Mississippi River. These 70 miles carry one-third of the river’s total freight, a direct reflection of the system’s efficiencies. The barge industry can handle 500,000 tons per mile, two-and-a-half times better than its competitors.

Those strengths are even more apparent along a 15-mile stretch of the Mississippi River, an area which has gained recognition as the Ag Coast of America. It is home to 15 barge-transfer facilities that, at total capacity, can handle 150 barges a day, the highest level of capacity anywhere along the Mississippi River.

December 2017

The St. Louis Regional Freightway partnered with the U.S. Department of Labor, TransPORTs, St. Louis Agency on Training & Employment, St. Louis Community College, Hogan Trucking, Vega Transportation and Schneider Trucking to launch an innovative new apprenticeship programaimed at training and increasing the truck driver workforce to meet existing and future demands.

March 2018

The St. Louis Regional Freightway and all four public ports from the St. Louis region signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Plaquemines Port Harbor & Terminal District from southern Louisiana to support development of a new transportation link with container on vessel services along the Mississippi River.

May 2018

The St. Louis Regional Freightway partnered with The Waterways Journal and Inland Marine Expo to host the inaugural FreightWeek STL, a four-day conference which brought together nearly 2,000 national industry leaders and experts to collaborate on the forward movement of America’s growing freight industry. The conference also highlighted the region’s enviable location as the epicenter of American logistics. To cap the event, the Freightway hosted its third annual Freight Summit Luncheon which was attended by more than 350 industry leaders. The luncheon included the release of the 2019 Freightway Multimodal Transportation Priorities list and a special presentation about container on vessel shipping.

May – July 2018

The St. Louis region receives over $400 million in multimodal transportation funding identified as priority projects by the Freightway’s Freight Development Committee. Starting in May 2018, the Illinois Department of Transportation and Missouri Department of Transportation jointly announced funding for the $220 million I-270 Chain of Rocks Bridge replacement over the Mississippi River. In June 2018, $18.7 million was received from Illinois’ new Competitive Freight Program. In July 2018, the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis agreed to provide $172 million in funding for the Merchants Rail Bridge replacement over the Mississippi River. This is a nationally-significant project as the Merchants Bridge provides services to six Class I railroads and Amtrak.

September 2018

Bi-State Development and the St. Louis Regional Freightway launch “I Choose STL,” a new platform promoting a positive image of the region through local jobs, workforce recruitment and training programs to the region and the Midwest. The pilot launch of IChooseSTL.com focused on promoting job and training opportunities for the St. Louis region’s trucking industry. The website is intended to serve as a resource for posting positive industry successes and quality of life articles that raise the region’s profile as one of the best places to work and live.

April 2019

The St. Louis region is again identified as the most efficient inland port district in the U.S. according to data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The region’s barge industry handled 472,400 tons per river mile, more than 1.6-times more efficient than the next closest competitor.

May 2019

The St. Louis Regional Freightway and the Port of Savannah forged a partnership to create a new connection between the St. Louis region and the largest single-terminal container facility in the western hemisphere. The Port of Savannah identified the St. Louis region as a key import/export market to which containers can consistently be distributed by rail at a lower cost for shippers.

August 2019

Missouri Governor Michael Parson visited the Mississippi River town of Herculaneum to find out more about a proposed Container-on-Vessel (COV) initiative. Governor Parson was joined by a group of Missouri lawmakers; Jefferson County elected officials; and representatives from the port authorities of Jefferson County, Kansas City, Jefferson City and others, and the group learned about the plan to use the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and their tributaries to move large volumes of goods and commodities along the inland waterways. The COV initiative would reduce freight transportation costs and increase efficiency and reliability for shippers.

September 2019

The St. Louis region’s Ag Coast of America is expanded to reflect its role leading the world in addressing global food security concerns. Strategically located in the center of the U.S. and world’s agriculture production, the bi-state St. Louis region is recognized as a world leader in agriculture technology (agtech) research and grain barge handling capacity. With the world population expected to grow by 25% and exceed 10 billion people over the next 30 years, a critical need exists for efficient production and movement of food. The St. Louis Regional Freightway, 39 North and World Trade Center St. Louis collectively spotlighted the region’s capabilities to do bothby cultivating the ecosystem with an expanded Ag Coast footprint that encompasses the region’s unmatched concentration of talent, capital, facilities, agtech companies and producers.

October 2019

The East-West Gateway Council of Governments (EWGCOG) Board of Directors unanimously endorsed the St. Louis Regional Freightway’s 2020 Multimodal Transportation Priority Projects List. These infrastructure projects received more than $1 billion in investments, and more than one-third of the projects had advanced to construction by the end of 2019. The projects included on this list were identified as priorities for the St. Louis region by business and industry leaders in the public and private sectors, as well as local and state officials, and the Missouri and Illinois Departments of Transportation (DOT). The Freightway’s Priority Project List is a great example of bi-state collaboration.

February 2020

The St. Louis region’s port system climbed to #2 for inland port total tonnage according to data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The port system handled 37.4 million tons of commodities over the course of 2018 (the latest year for which data was available), a 13.2% increase over the prior year. The region’s port system also retained the #1 ranking for most efficient inland port district in the U.S. in terms of tons moved per river mile. The system also has the second highest concentration of port facilities per mile of all inland ports, contributing to growing awareness of a 15-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that flows through southwestern Illinois and eastern Missouri at St. Louis known as the Ag Coast of America.

May 2020

The St. Louis Regional Freightway’s 2020 Multimodal Transportation Priority Projects List is released and includes 21 projects representing a total investment of $2.2 billion, with half that amount covering infrastructure projects that are already under construction or funded and expected to get underway. Newly added projects included specific sections of the I-70 projects in St. Charles County (MO), I-55 improvements in Jefferson County (MO) and a Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis dewatering project in front of the Gateway Arch National Park (MO). Examples of recently funded projects included the $42 million I-255 /Davis Street Ferry Road Interchange in St. Clair County (IL), $80 million Illinois Route 3 Connector in St. Clair County (IL) and $600 million I-270 improvements (MO-IL)

May 2020

FreightWeekSTL 2020 goes virtual and identifies the St. Louis bi-state region’s as a global logistics hub that can support one system or the entire supply chain from a company’s headquarters, research and development, and warehousing to suppliers and logistics. Infrastructure, both vertical and horizontal and the can-do workforce attitude and talent, along with a heritage of making things, enables companies like World Wide Technology, Bunge, General Motors, Progressive Recovery and many others to compete in the global market. This supply chain ecosystem is unique and has adapted to and stands ready for COVID-19 shifts in terms of shortened supply chains and a local workforce that supports each system of the supply chain.