$33-Million Ore Handling Facility Dedicated At Port Of Toledo

The TORCO Dock, the Port of Toledo's (Ohio) new $33-million iron ore transfer and ground storage facility, was officially dedicated into service recently as the port's e x c l u s i v e transshipment center f o r taconite ore pellets.

The new ore handling facility, constructed on the site of the former Lakefront coal and ore docks on Maumee Bay, was designed to specifically handle selfunloading Great Lakes vessels of up to 1,000 feet in length. It is owned by the Toledo Ore Railroad Company, a Chessie System subsidiary, and operated by the Chessie System Railroads, a unit of the CSX Corporation.

Over 150 invited guests, representing government, business and labor, were on hand to hear dedicatory remarks and tour the facility.

Highlighting the afternoon d e d i c a t i o n ceremony were addresses from top officials representing five organizations that joined in partnership to develop the new ore center.

The speakers included John A.

McWilliam, president of the Toledo- Lucas County Port Authority, who served as master of ceremonies; John J. Dwyer, president of the Oglebay Norton Company, Cleveland; John T. Collinson, president and chief executive officer, Chessie System, Cleveland ; Stuart M. Reed, president and chief operating officer, Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), Philadelphia; and C. William Verity Jr., board chairman, Armco, Inc., Middletown, Ohio.

The ore dock was designed with a system capacity to load railcars from dockside or from ground storage at a rate of 4,000 tons per hour and have capacity to provide ground storage for 800,000 tons. Railcars and ships will no longer be dependent on each other in transferring ore at the dock.

Between five and six million tons of taconite will be shipped through the facility annually.

Armco steel mills, located in Ashland, Ky., Hamilton and Middletown, Ohio, will be the principal recipients for the pellets to be transshipped t h r o u g h the TORCO Dock.

One thousand feet long, the C o l u m b i a Star (See MR/EN, June 15, 1981, issue, page 16), the largest vessel in Oglebay Norton's Columbia fleet of lake freighters, will be one of the regular callers at the TORCO Dock. Built specifically for the TORCO trade, she is the first "thousand-footer" ever to call in Toledo.

Other stories from August 1981 issue

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Maritime Reporter

First published in 1881 Maritime Reporter is the world's largest audited circulation publication serving the global maritime industry.