Port of Milwaukee – Supply Chain Logistics

The Port of Milwaukee is open for barge traffic, ocean shipping and interlake shipping and has heavy lifting capability.

The Port of Milwaukee is located in the Midwest of the US on the western shore of Lake Michigan at Lat. 43* 05' N, Long 87* 55' W, about 75 miles north of the city of Chicago. The Port of Milwaukee's primary markets are Wisconsin, Illinois (including Chicago), Iowa and Minnesota. Secondary markets include the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Missouri; and one of the prime ports to ship to the western Canadian Provinces.

Inland river barge shipping

We are open for barge traffic year round via the inland river system. The Port is accessed via New Orleans or Houston in the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi River and connecting into the Illinois River. Transit is approximate 30 days northbound and 20 days southbound. The Port of Milwaukee has 16 berths for vessels.

Ocean shipping - steel and project/breakbulk cargo

The Port of Milwaukee is a 4-1/2 day transit from/to Montreal. Fednav has a regular ship schedule from Europe to Milwaukee. Federal Marine Terminals is the Ports general cargo stevedore handling steel, forest products, bagged materials, heavy machinery, wind farm components, construction machinery, and project cargoes.

The maximum dimensions of a vessel transiting the St Lawrence Seaway System is LOA 740ft (225.54m), Beam 78in (23.77m) and draft of 26ft 3in (8m). International vessels have access to the Great Lakes from mid March through the end of the year.

Heavy lifting capability

Our stiff-leg derrick lifts 400,000lbs (200,000kg) at a 52ft (16m) radius. Three other mobile cranes and a gantry crane can handle other lifts up to 78 metric tons.

A full roster of distributive services can be provided including but not limited to warehousing, sorting, recooping, decanning, palletizing and container stripping and stuffing.

Interlake shipping - dry bulk cargo

Deck barges and Lake Carrier fleets carry products into Milwaukee from around the lakes including coal, salt, sand, cement, asphalt and construction aggregates. Kinder Morgan is the ports bulk handling contractor. KM-Transload also provides a rail to truck transload facility.

Four storage domes totaling 50,000t of space and ground storage is available. Services include storage and stock piling, direct transfer truck/rail/barge, vessel loading and unloading, packaging, palletizing and processing.

Intermodal connections

Canadian Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad railroads provide direct pier delivery at all Port facilities as well as necessary switching services.

I-94/794 leads directly into the Port. There are exit/entrance ramps direct to Port service roads. Public truck scales are availablet. I-794 at Carferry Drive has a 200ft radius, making long loads a breeze to get onto the freeway – with no city permits required!
Milwaukee Intermodal Terminals maintains a 10ac (4ha) rail/truck intermodal facility. The Canadian Pacific runs daily rail service between Montreal/Milwaukee (2-1/2 day transit) and Vancouver, B.C./Milwaukee (six day transit).

Liquid bulk

The Port of Milwaukee has about 300,000 barrels of bulk liquid storage capacity with the capability of service by vessel, pipeline, rail and truck. Products handled include biodiesel, ethanol, and used oils.

Please contact us, we would be happy to provide rates or contact information on any of these services to help in the decision to use Milwaukee transportation options.

We appreciate you considering the Port of Milwaukee in your supply chain logistic plans.

For further information and rates:
Eric Reinelt - port director, 414-286-8130, ereine@milwaukee.gov
Betty Nowak - marketing manager, 414-286-8131, bnowak@milwaukee.gov
Jason Stenglein, trade development, 414-286-8150, jsteng@milwaukee.gov

Port of Milwaukee
2323 South Lincoln Memorial Drive
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. 53207
Fax: 414-286-8506