Some 63 Locks Face Reductions in Service
Capitol Currents
3 August 2012
The current edition of the Waterways Council’s newsletter,
CAPITOL CURRENTS, is available at http://www.waterwayscouncil.org
Corps of Engineers Districts have begun implementing a cost-saving
policy to reduce hours of service at inland navigation locks with
less than 1,000 annual commercial lockages. Only locks with
that number, or more, lockages in 2010 will still be operated 24
hours (or three shifts) a day seven days a week.
Inland waterways locks handling between 500 and 1,000 commercial
lockages per year will be in service for only two shifts per day,
according to the new policy. Locks recording between 100 and
500 commercial lockages per year will operate with only one daily
shift. Those locks with less than 100 annual lockages will
have future service only by appointment (“scheduled service”) or
face closure.
According to Institute for Water Resources lock data,
approximately 63 navigation locks on the inland waterways system
face reduced hours or possible termination of service. Most
are on the Allegheny, Kaskaskia, and Ouachita Waterways as well as
the upper reaches of the Cumberland, Monongahela, Allegheny and
Mississippi River systems. According to one report, 38 of
the affected locks already have reduced hours of service.
WCI, AWO Urge Locks Be Separately Appraised
WCI has joined the American Waterways Operators (AWO) in pledging
to work with the Corps of Engineers to help reduce the cost of
operating navigation locks on the inland system but with more
realistic criteria. “We urge that the needs of each waterway
segment be separately evaluated in consultation with the users of
that segment to determine if there are better ways to control...
operating costs without transferring costs to the users in the
form of delays or other inefficiencies,” the organizations said in
a joint statement.
WCI and AWO cautioned against a “one size fits all” approach due
to “the unique circumstances of each waterway and potentially each
lock on each waterway.” If ways are found “to save money by
reducing locking hours without impairing waterways efficiency,”
the groups said they would “welcome the opportunity to cooperate
with the Corps” in addressing this issue.
In implementing reduced hours of service at so-called low-use
locks – a policy intended to stretch scarce O&M funds – Corps
officials have asked each of its Districts to meet with
stakeholders before instituting the proposed reductions.
Some stakeholders have already pointed out that tonnage passing
through a lock is only one measure of its economic
significance. The dollar value of that commerce is another
important factor which is not presently considered, and neither is
the number of workers (and their payrolls) associated with the
production of these cargoes.
Ton-Mile Metric Faulted as Performance Measure
“Tonnage or ton-miles, standing alone, do not tell us much at all
about a port or waterway.” So Matt Woodruff, WCI’s chairman,
who is director-government affairs of Kirby Corp., told a recent
Transportation Research Board conference on modal performance
measures.
“A performance measure that does not consider value is not a valid
measure,” he said. “By value, I mean, without limitation,
the value of the cargo and the economic impact of that tonnage on
both that area and the nation, including the jobs it provides both
directly and indirectly.”
“Something else a ton or ton-mile metric fails to measure is
the availability of alternative means of moving the cargo, if they
exist, and their cost. In some cases... there simply is no
alternative... Another fallacy of a ton-mile measurement is that
it is biased against short waterways” like Chocolate Bayou near
Houston, which is only 13.4 miles long but home to three chemical
plants. That bayou, he said, “doesn’t generate much in the
way of ton-miles, but it provides thousands of jobs in those
plants that would go away without the waterway.”
Overlooked values. “Finally, Mr. Woodruff said, “the
ton-mile metric fails to give any consideration at all to the
non-transportation values of our waterways. Some waterway
segments provide hydropower, recreation, municipal and industrial
water supply, environmental benefits, flood damage reduction and
irrigation.
“Shouldn’t we consider these values,” he asked, “as we weigh the
merits of investing in our waterways?”