Winona’s Commercial Harbor is located along Riverview Drive in Winona, Minnesota. The harbor area consists of public and privately owned dock facilities. ADM, CHS and the Port Authority all have dock facilities in the harbor. The Port Authority East and West Docks are operated through a License Agreement with Enstructure DBA C.D. Terminal LLC. Both dock facilities have been upgraded including a new dock built in 2011 and a rehabilitated dock in 2020.
The operators of the Commercial Harbor transported over 1.5 million tons of commodities in 2019, and on average 1100 barges enter the Commercial Harbor each shipping season.
Commercial Harbor Activity and Reports
Compiled by Port Authority staff, below are monthly Barge Activity Reports and a graph showing the amount of bulk commodities transported through the Port Authority’s Commercial Docks on an annual basis.
About the Mississippi River System
The Mississippi River System stretches over 195 miles in Minnesota and supports four port areas whose combined 2020 tonnage was 14 million net tons. The River accounts for over 50 percent of Minnesota’s agricultural exports.
Minnesota’s largest river tonnage commodities are agricultural products such as corn, soybeans and wheat. In 2019, Minnesota shipped 3.6 million tons of grain down the river. River ports also handle other dry commodities such as fertilizer, cement, sand and gravel, salt, coal, steel and scrap metals for recycling. Liquid products include petroleum, caustic soda, vegetable oils, molasses and anhydrous ammonia.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers maintains the Mississippi River System. They dredge the width and depth of the channel to accommodate 9-foot deep barges, and they operate the 29 locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi. Recreational boaters also use the locks at no cost. The commercial barge operators on the River pay a user fee of 29 cents per gallon of fuel purchased. These dollars are used to pay for half of major federal lock structure improvements.
For information about state-wide waterborne transportation click here.
Minnesota Annual River Port Tonnage (Net Tons)
Port | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Twin Cities | 7,300,722 | 7,586,571 | 8,203,679 |
Savage | 1,631,519 | 3,459,680 | 3,331,936 |
Red Wing | 609,543 | 1,018,887 | 1,019,341 |
Winona | 1,541,831 | 2,269,364 | 2,416,502 |
Totals | 11,083,614 | 14,334,502 | 14,971,458 |
