The
Omaha City Council will decide this week if they will back out of
the plan announced earlier to move the city's only dock.
According to Mayor Mike Fahey, there are problems with the soil
at the 34.2-acre site that was to be the new location for the
Port of Omaha.
Engineers estimate that it would cost more that $2 million to
stabilize the soil and Global Material Services, the current
leaseholder on the existing dock, says they cannot take on the
additional costs.
The existing dock handles more than 320,000 tons of products such
as steel, fertilizer and paper each year. Commodities delivered
by barges at the dock are stored in warehouse buildings or
fertilizer tanks nearby then shipped out by trains, trucks or
other barges.
The city is looking for other dock locations but they do not hold
out much hope for finding a suitable location. Since Gallup will
definitely need the current location for their riverfront
development, it may mean there will no longer be a city dock.
|
Original
Article Published Friday August 24, 2001
The Omaha City Council unanimously approved a plan to move the
location of the Port of Omaha this week. The current location
along the Missouri River is being vacated to
|
|
Barge
Moored at Port Of Omaha
|
|
make room
for the new Gallup Organization's Omaha business campus.
The city plans to move the dock to vacant ground northwest of
Eppley Airfield. The proposed new location lies between Abbott
Drive and the river, from Lindbergh Drive to North Ninth Street.
The site is near a small barge dock called the Heartland Terminal
and already has a rail spur. There's even a Dock Street there
already.
The city expects
to spend about $7 million to acquire and prepare a 34.2 acre site
for the new dock by 2002. It will include three large buildings
for storing commodities, a shop and office building and a system
for unloading, conveying and moving commodities between barges,
trains and trucks. The barge slip will also have to be dredged.
The port will continue to be managed by the Omaha Dock Board.
|
|
Artist's rendering of
Gallup's Headquarters and Campus |
Anderson
Excavating Co.
has received a contract for $4.9 million to prepare the old Port
of Omaha site for the new Gallup campus. They will be in charge
of site grading and demolition. Gallup has selected the Weitz
Co. of Des Moines as the general contractor for their new
60-acre campus.
Construction of the new $81 million headquarters and corporate
leadership university will begin in April and finish by the fall
of 2003. The campus will house Gallup's new leadership training
center for executives. The first phase includes a 285,000
square foot, five-story operations building and a 25,000
square-foot child development center, which will care for the
children of Gallup employees. Five more buildings and two parking
garages are planned for a later date.
Gallup has about 3,500 employees worldwide. Although their
headquarters will remain in Princeton, NJ, most of the operations
currently residing in Lincoln, NE will be moving to the Omaha
location.
Gallup has been in business for 66 years and is staking its
future growth on management training for mid-executives at the
new 'Gallup University'. Most of their income is generated by
private polls, management consulting and management training
seminars.
They expect 5,000 students per year to visit the university.
Omaha leaders hope those visiting executives will help channel
convention business here.
Omaha was the only Nebraska city considered for the leadership
campus, beating out Washington, DC, Chicago, Des Moines and
Denver. |
