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.