GICA Seminar Opens With Zea, Cassidy
Day one of the 120th Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (GICA) Seminar featured a pair of sessions focused on waterway infrastructure and federal funding. Tracy Zea, president and CEO of Waterways Council Inc. (WCI), spoke early in the day, with U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) addressing GICA Seminar attendees over lunch.
Zea opened his talk with a graphic showing that 80 percent of the locks within the Corps of Engineers’ lock portfolio are greater than 50 years old. Eighty-three locks are greater than 80 years old. Three are younger than 10 years old.
Looking at appropriations, even though the 2024 president’s budget included zero funds for inland waterway construction and major rehabilitation projects, Congress appropriated $456 million, Zea said.
“That shows Congress is willing to invest, and it is a very bipartisan investment,” he said.
Looking at new construction projects, Zea said the Corps—and by extension Congress and the maritime industry, which pays into the Inland Waterways Trust Fund—continues to deal with inflation and cost overruns. Chickamauga Lock in Chattanooga, Tenn., on the Tennessee River, for example, was authorized in 2003 at a cost of $267.2 million. The current cost estimate is $954.4 million, a 257.2 percent increase.
The cost overrun at Kentucky Lock is even bigger. That project was authorized in 1996 at a cost of $393.2 million. The current estimated cost is $1.56 billion, a 297 percent increase.
Zea said it’s clear that something has to change. He said one possible action that could speed along Corps projects would be amending Executive Order 12322, which President Ronald Reagan signed on September 17, 1981. That executive order has been interpreted to afford the Office of Management and Budget the power to conduct lengthy reviews of information and data from the Corps, including work plans.
Zea then outlined ways for waterway stakeholders to advocate for policies that could “expand the Corps’ tool chest,” including encouraging the use of early contractor involvement, continuing contract authority, incentive-based contracting, integrated design and construction and the ability to provide out-year funding.
Zea also offered an update on the Inland Waterways Users Board, which was dissolved earlier this year but could be reconstituted late this year.
“That board is extremely important,” he said. “It’s what racks and stacks projects.”
Cassidy, a medical doctor who trained as a gastroenterologist, addressed conference attendees over lunch. The two-term senator emphasized the importance of waterway stakeholders communicating with congressional leaders about the significance of the commerce transported on the nation’s waterways,
“If we don’t advocate, then it doesn’t happen,” he said of waterway infrastructure projects.
Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) operators were encouraged by Cassidy’s news that he plans to seek $2 million in funding to study the replacement of Bayou Sorrel Lock, located south of Baton Rouge, La., on the Morgan City-Port Allen alternate route of the GIWW. Waterway users have long called for a new study to replace the lock, which dates to 1951 and measures 56 feet by 797 feet.
Vaughn McDaniel, operations manager for LeBeouf Bros. Towing, voiced a sentiment that was on the minds of many in the crowd: “How do we get this done before we all die?”
“Well, the good news is, President Trump feels your pain,” Cassidy said, adding that Republicans and Democrats alike “are interested in doing permanent reform.”
