Tug boat/ (Sunflower photo)
A Dubuque shipyard is getting $600,000 in federal funding to expand its operation along the banks of the Mississippi River.
Carter Newt is the owner of Sunflower Enterprises, which manufactures custom barges. “Being centrally located in the country, we feel we provide a good service as a shipyard in an area of the country that doesn’t have a lot of shipbuilding or barge-building-type of capabilities,” he says.
The money from the U.S. Department of Transportation will help buy a 100-ton marine travel lift. The purchase will help expand the 25-employee operation, increasing the number of barges it can produce in a year.
“I was actually out walking in the woods, morel hunting, when I got notice of it,” Newt says. “I had to hoot and holler a little bit. It was pretty exciting.” Most barges you see puttering up and down the Mississippi come from large shipyards. Newt says his yard has carved out a place in the market by designing barges that can handle special jobs, like arranging rocks along a levee or digging out the sides of a channel.
“Historically, there have been very few in the Midwest,” he says. “Generally, it’s a lot of small shipyards along the coasts and in the Gulf area in particular.” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says small shipyards bolster the country’s maritime economic security. The Small Shipyard Grant Program awards more than $300 million to shipyards in 32 states. Sunflower Enterprises was the only Iowa recipient.
(By Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)