Pallets on Presidents Island and the Port of Memphis

BOX 01An island made by closing a channel

Presidents Island is a peninsula on the Mississippi River in southwest Memphis. Closing the Tennessee Chute created a deep-water harbor, later named McKellar Lake, which connects to the Mississippi through a channel at the island's south end. About 1,200 acres are zoned industrial and 95 percent of that land is occupied, with an annual economic impact of $7.1 billion, per Wikipedia.

BOX 02The port around it

The Port of Memphis covers the Tennessee and Arkansas banks of the Mississippi from river mile 725 to 740, is the second-largest inland port on the shallow-draft Mississippi, and handled about 8.2 million short tons of waterborne cargo in 2022 (Wikipedia). It includes 18 liquid bulk and eight dry bulk facilities, and its tenants include TVA's Allen Combined Cycle Plant and a Valero oil refinery. The public terminal on the island has open rail access to Union Pacific and BNSF through Canadian National, according to its operator.

Rail on the island was due an upgrade: the port won a $1.7 million state grant in 2019 to expand it, for bulk transfers between rail and barge. The port's own 2022 master plan flagged roads, rail and stormwater on the island as aging.

BOX 03Heavy loads, heavy pallets

Chemicals and refining residue matter in a request: a pallet that held a hazardous product should be called out. See 48 x 48, 48 x 45 and custom pallets.

BOX 04What to send

A request from the island should give the size, the grade the load needs, whether broken pallets are mixed in, and the count. Heavy docks are the likeliest to want a rebuilt or custom pallet and the likeliest to shed cores. Related reading: river port and heavy goods and broken pallet disposal.

BOX 05The island against the port

The island, McKellar Lake and the river terminals are all part of one freight system, and a pallet moves differently at each stage. At the barge, goods are loaded in bulk or on heavy skids. At the dock, they are repacked onto standard pallets for trucks. At the end, the heavy skids come off and are left behind.

That sequence is why an island request often has two parts: some heavy or odd builds to clear, and some standard 48 x 40 pallets that came with truck freight. Writing them as two lines is better than one combined count.