Abstract: Bulk material is loaded at a marine transfer station into a plurality of inter-modal containers that have removable top lids and are received side by side in the hopper of a barge. A gantry carried by the barge removes the lids from the containers and moves them to a storage rack on the barge, where they reside while the containers are loaded with material trucked to the facility and dumped into the open containers from a tipping floor. After the containers are loaded and, if desirable or necessary, the material in them leveled and compacted, the gantry replaces the lids on the containers. The barge is then moved over a waterway to a container handling facility, where the containers are transferred to rail cars or roadway tractor trailers for transport overland.