The Waterways Journal - Your Inland River Guide & Inland River Record Source!

EDITORIAL

Budget Revelations About Olmsted A Shocker

The president’s 2013 budget leads the river industry to believe that the Olmsted Lock and Dam project may never be finished. It could stop progress on other projects as well.

Olmsted was authorized in 1988 at a cost of $775 million with a seven-year construction period. The new price tag is more than $2.9 billion, and the government has added 10 years to the construction schedule. As late as last year, the price tag for Olmsted had risen to $2.1 billion. Now, it is $2.9 billion.

This development leads industry leaders to believe that “there will be no meaningful investment in modernization of our aging inland waterways infrastructure for a decade, or more, if Olmsted continues down its current path.”

Shakespeare was using a Bible reference when he wrote, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Government has blown the borrowing admonition completely out of the water. Perhaps more applicable is the statement Jesus made to the apostles about “counting the cost.” He suggested that they evaluate the issue and make sure they could finish the course.

The biblical admonition was apparently ignored totally when it came to Olmsted. We know Olmsted was being constructed under experimental methods. But the Corps knew that, too. They have modern computers, models, and calculators to help them figure out various project elements. It took from 1904 to 1914 to build the 48-mile long Panama Canal. Most likely calculations were done by pencil and brainpower. The builders of the Empire State Building bought the site in 1929 for $16 million and opened the 102-story building in May 1931.

Readers can find elsewhere in this issue detailed information about what this budget revelation means to America’s economy. But it is pertinent to the issue that the U.S. has billions of dollars worth of backlogged projects, many of which have been gathering moss for decades simply because of poor planning and financing techniques. Some have been deauthorized because the original reason for construction no longer exists. Every businessman worth his salt knows about “counting cost.” Those who don’t know have great potential for failure.

Needless to say, Waterways Council Inc. is unhappy over this budget revelation and is reacting to the delay and increase in the price tag. The overall leap from $775 million in 1988 to $2.9 billion today is a big jump. WCI says that under the current plan, “there will be nothing for the authorized projects on the Upper Mississippi River, no investment for the Illinois, the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Cumberland, the Monongahela, or any other construction on any other part of the system.

What is it that the federal government does not understand about the importance of water transportation to the economic well-being of the nation?

According to WCI, “The national economy will lose $700 million per year in benefits foregone by the delay in the Olmsted project alone, as estimated by the Corps’ own economists. Our nation will be placing a risky 10-year bet in relying on the ‘Roaring 20s’-era facilities at Locks 52 and 53, which Olmsted was to have already replaced.”

Bungling this project is a tremendous burden on industry, which pays 50 percent of the cost of construction plus a similar share of cost overruns.

Some time back, industry recognized that the government’s present business model “is broken and that we do not have an efficient way to construct lock and dam projects.” WCI reminds us that the navigation industry, along with Corps of Engineers experts, developed the Inland Waterways Capital Development Plan to address these deficiencies and cap cost overruns. “If this plan were to be used, it would deliver 25 projects in the next two decades instead of the six that will be completed under the current process,” developers of the plan said. Interestingly, WCI points out, “Panama is proceeding toward completion of six Olmsted-sized major lock expansions in 2014, below budget and ahead of schedule.”

As for Olmsted, WCI says Congress must decide whether the experimental methods being used at the construction site should continue or whether they should return to traditional methods and bring the cost back under control. “At minimum,” writes WCI, “Congress must act to relieve the Inland Waterways Trust Fund from further obligation to the Olmsted project.”

Weekly News Summary For February 20–26, 2012:

Budget: Olmsted Will Take Decade Longer Than Expected

President Obama presented Congress with a Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposal totaling $3.8 trillion February 14, including $4.7 billion for the civil works program of the Army Corps of Engineers.

In addition to the Corps, the president’s budget included $9.97 billion for the Coast Guard, $74 billion for the Department of Transportation, and $344 million for the Maritime Administration.

The reaction from the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) was mixed, while Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, complained that the budget proposed by the president “follows the road to financial ruin.”

“Rather than emphasize more deficit spending, from whatever source, the president’s focus should change to making transportation programs and projects more efficient and cutting the red tape that has left even his transportation stimulus money still stuck in federal coffers,” Mica said. “One third of his infrastructure stimulus money is still in Washington, three years after its passage, but he proposes more. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Kurt Nagle, president and chief executive officer of the AAPA, said that even though the administration’s budget includes cuts in order to meet the Budget Control Act passed by Congress last year, “there are bright spots for seaports, such as a much-needed increase in the portion of the Corps’ funding pertaining to deepdraft navigation maintenance, and funding for the Department of Transportation’s budget that pertains to enhancing America’s freight mobility.”
read full story in digital edition

Officials Tell Congress: Release Dredging Funds

Congressional efforts are accelerating to pass legislation this year to dedicate money collected under the Harbor Maintenance Tax to be used for its intended purpose—keeping waterways open at their authorized dimensions.

Currently, only about 52 percent of the $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion collected annually by an ad valorum tax on the value of imported freight is actually used for harbor maintenance. As a result of inadequate channel maintenance, there have been several vessel soft groundings in the Lower Mississippi River, and pilots’ associations have asked for loading restrictions and, in some cases, daylight-only transits of narrowing reaches.

Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.) is the lead author in the House of Representatives of the RAMP (Realize America’s Maritime Potential) Bill (H.R. 104) which currently has 174 co-sponsors. He made opening remarks before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Select Revenue Measures on February 1.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and 22 of the 34 co-sponsors of the Harbor Maintenance Act of 2011 Bill (S-412), sent a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chair of the Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works, and minority ranking member Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), asking to include their language in the Senate Surface Transportation Bill, and not wait for another Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which is not expected to be passed this year.

“Waterborne transportation is often the least expensive means of transporting vital commodities used for manufacturing, construction and energy generation,” Levin’s letter said. “Keeping our ports and harbors in good repair not only supports our economy and jobs, and boosts our international competitiveness, but shipping also helps relieve highway and rail congestion.”…
read full story in digital edition

Foss Goes To Court; Delta Mariner Goes To Paducah

As the Delta Mariner arrived at the James Marine shipyard in Paducah, Ky., to continue repairs to its bow and guardrail, its owner, Foss Maritime, filed a document on February 14 called a Complaint for Exoneration from or Limitation of Liability with the U.S. District Court in Kentucky’s Western District, Paducah Division. The document is a type of maritime court action that seeks to limit a vessel owner’s liability in an accident.

The Delta Mariner allided with the Eggners Ferry Bridge across Kentucky Lake on January 27, resulting in one of the bridge’s spans wrapping around the vessel’s bow.

The Delta Mariner arrived at James Marine’s Paducah River Services yard on February 14, after being inspected by the Coast Guard and ABS to determine seaworthiness.

Foss spokeswomen Suzanne Lagoni told the Cadiz (Ky.) Record, “The salvage operation has been conducted very safely. We’ve had no injuries to the salvage team, the crew or the public.”

In the complaint, Foss claims the value of the Delta Mariner at $13 million and the value of its cargo, a rocket section being delivered to Cape Canaveral, as $227,900….
read full story in digital edition

Galveston Railroad Bridge Span Put In Place

Years of effort came to a head February 14–17 as workers put the last span of the new Galveston railroad bridge in place. The new bridge spans the Intracoastal Waterway at Mile 357.2, near Galveston, Texas, paralleling the old bridge.

The old bridge had a 105-foot gap that was one of the narrowest transits in the waterway. In 2001, it was declared a navigation hazard by the U.S. Coast Guard, which ordered a new bridge with a 300-foot gap. The Coast Guard paid 95 percent of the new bridge’s construction cost; the other 5 percent was divided between the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, the city of Galveston, the Port of Galveston, and Galveston County.

National engineering firm Cianbro, headquartered in Pittsfield, Maine, is the main contractor. Along with joint venture partner Brasfield & Gorrie, a Birmingham, Ala.-based general contractor, Cianbro constructed a new vertical lift span bridge adjacent to the existing, single-track bridge.

The Galveston Daily News reported that the detailed plan for the move of the final span filled 600 pages of a three-ringed binder specifying what every team member was to do, down to the minute. The span is 382 feet long, 50 feet tall and 22 feet wide. After its supports were knocked out, the span was moved onto a Flexifloat barge 300 feet long and 100 feet wide. Together with its load, the barge weighed about 1,700 tons. A team of more than 100 people moved the 1,580-ton span from its construction site on Harborside Drive to just northeast of the causeway between Galveston and the mainland. Movements during placement, guided by a complex array of cranes and wires, were calculated to fractions of an inch. After being positioned and settled, the unit was “buttoned” onto the support structures.

The bridge replacement’s project manager, John Strid, reached briefly mid-project, told The Waterways Journal that the joint venture does have its own small pushboats, but also contracts out for “anything over about 800 hp.” Local towing companies involved include Smith Marine and T&T Marine of Galveston, he said….
read full story in digital edition

Turn Services Dedicates Mv. Secretariat

Only 11 horses have won the coveted Triple Crown, with victories at the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes in the same season. Membership in such an elite fraternity of thoroughbreds speaks to each horse’s toughness, determination and true greatness.

Those same qualities led Turn Services, New Orleans, La., to name its fleet of towboats in honor of those 11 horses, including famous names like War Admiral, Citation and Affirmed.

Turn Services completed its complement of Triple Crown-honoring towboats with a christening ceremony January 27 for the towboat mv. Secretariat.
“We’re here to show off and gain blessings for this newest addition to the Turn Services fleet, the Secretariat,” Turn Services senior vice president-operations Mike Marshall said to open the christening. “What you see here is the result of good design, materials and craftsmanship, including 355,000 pounds of steel and 16,500 man-hours of labor.”

The mv. Secretariat, in operation since just before Christmas 2011, makes the 15th towboat in Turn Services’ fleet. The new towboat operates along the Mississippi River between Miles 54 and 180, said Rodney Davis of Magnolia, Ark., who serves as mate on the Secretariat.
read full story in digital edition

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Waterways Journal encourages letters to the editor. Have something on your mind? Send letters to
(Please indicate whether or not your letter is intended for publication.)