Cargill deliveries back up downtown traffic

CEDAR RAPIDS - Motorists traveling into downtown Cedar Rapids on Monday saw a large number of grain trucks backed up waiting to deliver soybeans to the Cargill East processing plant.

While trucks initially were backed up on the shoulder of Interstate 380 at the Seventh Street exit, drivers also were parked along First Avenue NE waiting to turn onto Fourth Street NE. The street leads to a two-lane staging area near the Cargill soybean crushing plant at 410 C Ave. NE.

Grain trucks waiting in line to make deliveries at Cargill is a fairly common occurence each year because of limited staging space near the plant. Greg Buelow, Cedar Rapids public safety spokesman, said the trucks parked on First Avenue NE were not causing safety issues.

'In general, the truck drivers are pretty good about using the outside lanes while they are waiting to deliver,” Buelow said. 'Our municipal code allows for a vehicle to park in an outside lane when making a delivery or for staging to unload.

'There are times when the police department would classify it as a serious traffic safety issue when the trucks back up on the interstate or on the ramps. When that occurs, officers have the drivers move their trucks.”

Buelow said police would rather have the trucks waiting along multilane city streets where other drivers should be traveling at roughly half the speed limit of the interstate.

'The trucks cannot block multiple lanes, railroad crossings or an intersection,” Buelow said. 'A lot of the truckers that come into the city are keenly aware of the rules that apply.”

Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities in West Des Moines, said farmers likely sold the soybeans being delivered when prices spiked above $10 per bushel.

'The basis price was at the top of the range, and farmers realized that it's bin cleaning time with the next harvest coming,” Roose said.

Roose said demand for soybean meal produced by the Cargill plant has been strong.

'Cargill has been bidding up for soybeans because they've had good crush margins for the past three weeks,” Roose said. 'It's been a win-win situation for farmers cleaning out their bins and for Cargill.”

Cargill announced plans in January 2012 to invest as much as $60 million over a period of several years to modernize its Cedar Rapids soybean crushing plant. The company closed its Des Moines crush plant in February 2012.

Cargill did not respond to a request for comment on this story.