01516415

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2409-04

http://scholar.google.com...boge&publication_year=2014

A crisis is developing in the maintenance of lock and dam infrastructure. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces a higher demand for building and maintaining its projects than available federal funding allows. This situation is raising basic questions about how the corps functions, including the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of project planning and implementation. The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility and potential advantages of transitioning the U.S. lock and dam system from the current approach of build and expand prescribed by the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 to an approach of repair and sustain. A two-part effort took place to fulfill this objective. The first part analyzed the state of the practice in policy, legislation, funding, planning, and project implementation and estimated the impacts of alternative approaches, both at the national level and to the individual shipper. The second part analyzed economic, funding, and financing issues; developed alternative revenue-generating scenarios; and compared case studies of waterway infrastructure projects in the United States and abroad to determine the potential for transitioning from the current funding approach to a bonding style (lump sum up front) approach. The study concluded that it would be possible to maintain, improve, and ensure the long-term viability of the U.S. inland waterway infrastructure through alternative approaches, but significant changes would be required in policies, funding mechanisms, programs, and procedures for project planning and implementation.

01534209

14-1145

English

0000-0002-7519-161X

pp 26–30

2014

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309295024

Print

References (11) ; Tables (2)

Bonds; Case studies; Dams; Economic analysis; Financing; Inland waterways; Locks (Waterways); Maintenance; Policy; State of the practice

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

United States

Finance; Freight Transportation; Marine Transportation; Terminals and Facilities; I10: Economics and Administration

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 27 2014 2:27PM

• Comparing Manned and Automated Horizontal Handling Equipment at Container Terminals: Productivity and Economic Analysis
• Developing and Applying Level-of-Service Framework to Land-Based Port-of-Entry Infrastructure Planning
• Impact of Bimodal and Lognormal Distributions in Ocean Transportation Transit Time on Logistics Costs
• Liner Ship Fleet Deployment with Uncertain Demand
• Modeling Maintenance Project Selection on a Multimodal Transportation Network
• Planning-Level Tool for Assessing and Optimizing Gate Layout for Marine Container Terminals
• Structure of Port Operations Observatory: Application in Mediterranean Sea
• Transportation Rate Analysis: Gulf Intracoastal Waterway–East, Arkansas River, and Red River in the United States