Feds add US$7 million to $58 million spent on marine highways

US DEPARTMENT of Transportation (DOT) has selected corridors along the west, east and Gulf Coasts, Great Lakes and inland waterways at an initial funding of US$7 million to tackle road congestion, climate change and maintenance costs.

To date, the department has awarded $58 million in grants for projects to support the start-up or expansion of Marine Highways services, said a US Truckinginfo report.

"Making better use of our rivers and coastal routes offers an intelligent way to relieve some of the biggest challenges we face - congestion, climate change, fossil fuel energy use and soaring road maintenance costs," said DOT Secretary Ray LaHood. "There is no better time for us to improve the use of our rivers and coasts for transportation."

Of 35 project applications, the Maritime Administration Unit selected eight projects: The container-on-barge service operating between Newark, Boston and Portland, Maine, the Cross Gulf Container Expansion (Ports of Manatee, Florida and Brownsville, Texas); Tenn-Tom Waterway Pilot Project (Port Itawamba, Mississippi), a new container-on-barge service between the Port of Itawamba on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and Mobile, Alabama, to function as the inland leg of a new route between deep draft Gulf Coast container terminals and manufacturing centres near Port Itawamba and the Gulf Atlantic Marine Highway Project (South Carolina State Ports Authority and the Port of Galveston) intended to move containers between the Gulf, mid-Atlantic and south Atlantic ports on a modern fleet of US-flagged vessels.

Other projects include the Trans-Hudson Rail Service (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) to expand the quality and capacity of an ongoing cross-harbour rail float service operating between the Greenville Rail Terminal in Jersey City and Brooklyn; the James River Container Expansion (Virginia Port Authority) to expand the existing container-on-barge service between the Hampton Roads region of Virginia and Richmond.

Additionally the East Coast Marine Highway Initiative (Ports of New Bedford, Mass, Baltimore, Maryland, and Canaveral, Florida) to transport both international containers and trailers to destinations along the I-95 Corridor; and the west coast Hub-Feeder Initiative (Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District) along the coastlines of Washington, Oregon and California; and the Golden State Marine Highway Initiative (ports of Redwood City, Hueneme and San Diego, and the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District) which is a joint effort by four California ports to improve the efficiency of freight movement by developing a service linking California's ports to form a 1,100-mile Marine Highway along the west coast.

Finally, the Illinois-Gulf Marine Highway Initiative (Heart of Illinois Regional Port District) will examine opportunities for a Marine Highway service to support Midwest industrial production and operating between US Gulf Coast seaports and Peoria, Illinois, via the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.
(Source:www.schednet.com)