Weekly News Summary For September 21-27, 2009:
As part of a compromise included in the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, the barge and towing industry accepted that it would pay for 50 percent of the cost of new lock construction.
In the 23 years since then, there have been a lot of cost overruns and relatively few project completions. In response, waterway users have offered a new suggestion for how to manage the cost-share: the industry should only pay half the cost as presented in the original project authorization—not the final price tag, which is generally inflated by delays and overruns.
That was one recommendation included in the Inland Waterways Users Board’s 2009 annual report, which was released last week.
“There is an inherent inequity in a process where two ‘partners’ split project costs based on one partner’s estimate, yet the other partner pays half of the escalating costs if the estimate proves faulty,” the report said. “This inequitable arrangement provides no incentive to develop accurate cost estimates. In fact, it may encourage lower estimates that improve project cost-benefit ratios, which in turn may cause one partner (in this case, those paying the inland waterway fuel tax, not to mention the general taxpayer) to proceed with projects that might otherwise have not advanced if a more accurate cost estimate had been available.”
The report noted a number of problems that have driven up construction costs. Those problems included delay-caused inflation, government design changes, design omissions, re-estimates and differing site conditions encountered during construction. By the Corps’ estimates, the non-inflationary reasons caused 61 percent of the cost growth on the Lower Monongahela River Project, and 69 percent of the cost growth of the Olmsted Locks Construction Project on the lower Ohio River, the Users Board said….
Steering a course between factions in a long-running, bitter dispute over 13 wild salmon and steelhead runs in the Northwest, the Obama administration submitted its revised conservation plan on the Columbia and Snake Rivers to U.S. District Judge James Redden on September 15.
The administration’s plan kept alive the possibility of breaching four dams on the Snake River after study, but called that option “a contingency of last resort.” Further action by Congress would be needed to actually breach the dams, which would end commercial navigation on the Snake River and close the port of Lewiston, Idaho.
The plan is known as a biological opinion. Required under the federal Endangered Species Act, it is written jointly by the agencies that share responsibility for the dams: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the Bonneville Power Administration, the electric utility that administers the hydropower plants.
The administration’s biological opinion is a revision of one developed by the Bush administration, which refused to consider dam breaching during its eight years. The Obama plan adds monitoring triggers for actions in case salmon stocks sink too low….
As a second-generation lockmaster, Brad Blanchard could not wait for the dewatering process to be completed before he crawled into the total darkness of the north and south tunnels that use gravity to flood Mississippi River water into the Port Allen Lock.
His father, Raymond Blanchard, retired as lockmaster at the Calcasieu Lock after 34 years. Brad said he began learning about lock operations before he was 10 years old. After nine years at the Bayou Sorrel Lock on the Port Allen Route, the Corps of Engineers transferred him to the Port Allen Lock, where he has been for 14 years.
Some concrete walls in the lock are seven feet thick. Signs declare it a nuclear fallout shelter. During Hurricane Gustav, 100 mph. winds were howling outside, but caused little concern within the control office building.
As soon as he arrived at Port Allen, Blanchard began to crawl through all of the machinery spaces and lock crevices that were accessible. He had to know how everything worked. Now he would be able to see inside the tunnels and the “bathtub plunger gates” for the first time.
This year was only the second dewatering of the Port Allen Lock since it opened in 1961, and the first time Blanchard would be able to enter the two 14-foot-square cement tunnels that flood the 1,200- by 84-foot lock chamber. The last dewatering was in 1987…
The Pittsburgh Engineer District has awarded a $28.4 million contract to continue critical work at the Monongahela River Locks and Dam 4 at Charleroi, Pa. The contractor, C.J. Mahan Construction Company LLC, will construct the upper and lower guard walls and cells at the lock.
The work is part of the Lower Monongahela River Project, which is constructing two large new locks to replace three old locks.
The guard wall contract is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This is the largest contract yet awarded by the Pittsburgh District under the economic stimulus act.
“Without these Recovery Act funds, this project would be essentially stalled and jobs would be lost,” said Col. Michael Crall, Pittsburgh District engineer. “We’re glad that these funds are available to progress this long-delayed project and sustain jobs for the Pittsburgh area.”
The Recovery Act-funded work at Charleroi is scheduled for a 2011 completion. The completion date for the overall Lower Monongahela River Project remains in question due to funding shortages. The normal funding stream for the project is cost-shared, with half of the money coming from the federal government and half from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund. But the Recovery Act provided funds that don’t have to be matched by IWTF contributions.
Ship calls at the Port of New Orleans are up 4.5 percent for the first five months of 2009, a figure that is significant considering the global economic recession, said Gary LaGrange, port president and chief executive officer.
Issuing his “State of the Port” report at the World Trade Center overlooking the Mississippi River, LaGrange said total general cargo figures improved slightly, while breakbulk cargo showed a 15 percent gain and iron and steel imports increased 6 percent.
Aluminum, zinc and copper imports—London Metals Exchange products—tripled during the same period.
These increases offset a drop in container traffic, which is down about 15 percent, he said.
LaGrange, who grew up in Cajun country in Southwest Louisiana, received a contract extension to remain port president through 2013 at the Board of Commissioners meeting, which was held before the luncheon address.
The Waterways Journal encourages letters to the editor.
Have something on your mind?
Send letters to: jshoulberg@waterwaysjournal.net.
(Please indicate whether or not your letter is intended for publication.)
