Jefferson County Port Authority

the port authority began in 1976 with a small group of men and women willing to donate their time to better the business climate of jefferson county. as the years went by, these members consistently applied their time and talents to further develop the entire eastern border of jefferson county that was bounded by the mississippi river. historically, there had been two major problems to development: availability of land and viable transportation to nearby interstate-55. when the city of herculaneum received a grant to build a connecting bridge to reach i-55, the project suddenly took on new life. soon after, a major land owner, doe run lead company, began to study alternate production methods that would require a smaller footprint for their operations, thus freeing up some availability to the riverfront property. at this point, the jefferson county port authority made the smart move to become part of doe run's feasibility study by acting as a tagalong and broadening the scope