Eight Parrish & Heimbecker grain silos at Picton Terminals are rising from the surface of Picton Bay. The 144-foot tall concrete leviathans are set into the limestone escarpment and will rise about 85 feet above the 60-foot cliffs. The site is set to join Heidelberg Materials in mass and presence.

P & H Vice President Terminals, Darryl Markle, said shipments of corn, soybeans and wheat will start arriving some time in March 2026. He expects the first shipment of bulk agriculture goods to leave the port in the following month.

A boon for the region’s grain and oilseed farmers, the new terminal will significantly reduce travel times for local producers, who face high trucking fees to ship soybeans to Hamilton and corn to Prescott.

The site has an expected capacity of 38,000 tonnes. The facility will be able to process 300,000 tonnes of grain annually, enough to fill about 10 lake freighters.

The Picton operation will be one of the company’s smaller facilities. P&H operates marine terminals in Vancouver and Hamilton that handle 4 million and 1.3 million tonnes of grain, respectively.

Picton Terminals spokesperson Sandy Berg said the start of cement pouring last week was a milestone moment in the history of shipping on Picton Bay. “We use the term awesome a little too freely these days but that’s what this project is,” Ms. Berg said. “P&H have a lot of experience in this kind of work, but for us to see it happening first-hand was awesome.”

“FWS Industrial Projects Canada are at the site, building the silos for P&H. They are working in a few different locations and there’s a ton of activity but it’s still business as usual for us,” she said.