Waterways Council backs inland system plan

Waterways Council backs inland system plan    The Waterways Council this week voted unanimously to endorse the recommendations of the industry-U.S. Army Corps of Engineers strategy to more efficiently improve the nation's aging inland waterways system.
   According to the Waterways Council, the plan would:
   ' Improve the Corps' project management and processes to deliver projects on time and on budget.
   ' Prioritize navigation modernization projects across the entire inland waterway system.
   ' Provide a workable and affordable funding mechanism to meet the system's future capital investment needs.
   In mid-December, after nearly a year of working together to develop the consensus Capital Development Plan, the Inland Marine Transportation System Capital Investments Strategy Team, comprised of key Corps personnel and inland waterways industry members, presented their joint recommendations to the Inland Waterways Users Board, which unanimously endorsed the proposal. The Inland Waterways User Board is a congressionally established federal advisory committee that provides advice to Congress and the assistant secretary of the Army-Civil Works.
   Among the key recommendations is the preservation of the existing 50 percent industry/50 percent federal government cost-sharing formula for new lock construction and major rehabilitation projects, while adjusting the current model to provide that dam construction and smaller rehabilitation projects would be federally funded.
   The strategy team also recommended a cost-share cap on all new lock construction projects that would protect the Inland Waterways Trust Fund and industry taxpayers from funding significant cost overruns and provide an important incentive for inland waterway modernization projects to be built on time and within budget.
   'Waterways Council's board recognizes that these recommendations, if adopted, will benefit the nation overall because a modern lock and dam infrastructure is essential to U.S. competitiveness, to energy efficiency, to congestion relief, to environmental protection, and to the sustainment of jobs,' said Cornel Martin, the council's president, in a statement.