Marine Highway Not Flash-In-Pan Dream

Waterways Journal Editorial
26 April 2010

For many decades the idea of constructing what ultimately became the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway was considered to be merely a dream. The idea for the 234-mile waterway, completed in 1984 at a cost of nearly $2 billion, was conceived upwards of a century ago. Today it links 14 river systems, providing 4,500 miles of navigable waterways. Like the Tenn-Tom, the North American Marine Highway is not a flash-in-the-pan dream.

As with the Tenn-Tom, far-seeing planners realized the benefits of water transportation, particularly for reducing pollution and reducing highway congestion, and have kept pushing the idea. As WJ readers noted from our No. 1 headlined story in the April 19 edition, the marine highway concept has drawn great attention and certainly is no longer a dream. Our Washington correspondent, Carlo J. Salzano, reported at length on the 7th annual North American Highways & Logistics Conference, held April 7 in Maryland.

Salzano wrote: “The highly touted American Marine Highway, a water transport concept envisioned as the equivalent of the decades-old interstate highway system, won major support this month from both the Department of Transportation and Capitol Hill.” There is no need for in-depth repetition of the information reported in that story. Its significance, however, is in recognition of the importance of water transportation to the nation. The benefits of water transportation, long heralded by U.S. Maritime Administration and the maritime industry itself, are widely acknowledged, in some cases for the mere fact that highways are congested (which puts lives at risk), and in other cases because water transportation is environmentally friendly and can help reduce undesirable emissions targeted by environmentalists and many federal programs.

Acting Maritime Administrator David Matsuda told conference delegates that maritime transportation “has so much potential to help our nation in many ways: reduced gridlock and greenhouse gases and more jobs for skilled mariners and shipbuilders.”

Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood, speaking on the second day of the conference, said, “For too long, we’ve overlooked the economic and environmental benefits that our waterways and domestic seaports offer as a means of moving freight in this country.” Referring to a new $7 million DOT program to be announced later this summer, he added, “The new program is part of our broader strategy to improve our nation’s transportation infrastructure across the board by ensuring that shippers have viable, cost-effective options for moving goods throughout the United States and around the world.”

We at the WJ cannot remember when the towing industry has not stressed the benefits of water transportation. Providing low-cost transportation while helping to improve the environment go hand-in-glove. Industry and MarAd have touted these ideas for decades. But if the nation is really beginning to wake up to the idea that water transport is all that we say it is, does it matter who came up first with the idea? As long as the government agrees with and believes in the plan and provides adequate financial support, that is what counts.

Under DOT’s new program, the Maritime Administration will help identify rivers and coastal routes that could carry cargo efficiently, bypassing congested roads around busy ports and reducing greenhouse gases. Instructions on how applications may be made for official designation of a marine highway project were spelled out in a final rule published April 9 in the Federal Register.

LaHood said the new program is the latest in a series of efforts by DOT to strengthen our maritime economy. Salzano reported, “Through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program, the administration has funded more than $120 million worth of port projects around the country, including $58 million directly invested in marine highway projects ranging from Rhode Island to the Mississippi River and California.” So the concept doesn’t come across as merely a dream.

As is the case with many federal programs these days, what stands in the way of fast-forwarding the marine highway dream is the nation’s gigantic shortage of money. An advantage of the program, however, is that the marine highway concept equals the sum total of its parts. Just as with our usual inland waterway navigation projects, individual segments can be designated and progress can be made as money becomes available. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

We can be comforted by the fact that important people in government places are acknowledging the value of water transport. Industry has always known it.