Missouri River Terminal

The Missouri River Terminal (MRT) will establish Kansas City as the trade gateway of choice in the Midwest. This inland port’s unique and unparalleled access to the three major transportation modes will attract economic and employment reinvestment within a 25-mile industrial corridor on the east side of Kansas City, which has been long neglected.

Thanks to a dedicated $30 million by state leaders from the FY 2024 budget, MRT is primed to continue its mission forward to change the waterway and economic landscape for Missouri. The funding will build road access into the site which is located at the convergence of the Blue River into the Missouri River in Jackson County. It already has access to five major railroads, and the Missouri River, but required better road access for trucks in and out of the property. The state funds will allow development of the terminal, which will expand Kansas City’s footprint as a global logistics center and attract needed new jobs and opportunity to the eastside neighborhoods of Kansas City. Port Duisburg in Germany has been a case study in our design. It is Europe’s largest inland port, handling 4.4 million TEUs in 2019.

MRT will promote agricultural, industrial, and manufacturing development by increasing the efficient movement of goods and KC’s national export capacity. MRT will significantly change how freight moves in the United States and how the world looks at the development of freight corridors. It will expand the Kansas City region’s transportation efficiency, capacity, infrastructure, and future economic growth.

Port KC bought 415-acres of former steel mill land in 2018 to develop it into a multimodal, inland port. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded Port KC a $9.88 million grant to advance the redevelopment of the state-of-the-art MRT.