Four million dollars in state funding is being released to expand and build a port in Cairo.

It’s the first part of $40 million headed to the project that sits at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi River. The project would be a multi modal hub connecting river traffic to trains or semi-trucks.

Republican State Senator Dale Fowler says the completed port will bring jobs and an economic lifeline to the area.

80 percent of the nation’s daily barge traffic floats past Cairo. The first four million for the port will go to early design, engineering and permitting.