WCI Calls For Single ‘Waterways Czar’
For years, the Waterways Council Inc. has worked closely with the Corps of Engineers and members of Congress, recommending reforms while defending the need for greater investments in America’s once magnificent, but now largely aged, lock and dam infrastructure.
Now comes the farthest-reaching proposal yet. A recently released study sponsored by WCI and titled “Inland Navigation Construction Organization: A New Programmatic Approach for Delivering Major Projects,” proposes a fundamental, from-the-ground-up change in the architecture of project delivery.
The paper urges the creation of a single authority to oversee all aspects of inland waterway construction, operation and maintenance, an Inland Navigation Construction Organization (INCO) within the Corps of Engineers “to drive accountability and execute multiple inland waterways mega projects from inception to completion more efficiently, with an inland program manager serving as the hub and conduit for information sharing.”
The white paper is a follow-up to the “Recommendations for Improving the Delivery of Inland Waterway Capital Projects” report prepared by HDR in September 2025 for WCI. That report examined how the Corps can address project delays and cost overruns, which have plagued the inland navigation construction program for decades.
The concentration of authority is necessary, WCI argues, because piecemeal reforms are no longer enough.
“Modernization of inland waterways lock and dam infrastructure over the past 28 years (1997-2025) has resulted in the completion of only three projects, significant cost overruns and schedule slippages, whereas between 1987-1997, seven inland construction projects were finished, with an average cost overrun of 33 percent,” WCI said in a news release announcing the study. “The challenges do not lie with any one component of a project’s complex life cycle, but rather breakdowns and disconnects among and within design, construction and decision-making. Because the system spans numerous states and various Corps’ districts and divisions, new emphasis should be put on the system as a whole.”
Regarding appointing a single person responsible for overseeing the program, WCI stated, “Providing a single point-person that can access timely, accurate and consistent information on the program for the Corps, industry, the Inland Waterways Users Board and Congress is imperative for success. This framework will also provide the visibility and appropriate oversight needed to prevent or address significant execution challenges seen at Olmsted Lock and Dam and the Kentucky Lock, both legacy projects that escalated in cost and took decades to complete.”
WCI identified a template for such a move: the Corps’ own Dam Safety Program. According to the WCI report, that program acts as a single authority overseeing the entire portfolio of 740 dams the Corps operates.
According to the WCI proposal, the area of responsibility of the INCO director would include mega and major rehabilitation construction projects, with a coordination-only role for the Operations & Maintenance (O&M) program. The director would serve as the unifying voice for the Corps’ inland navigation mission, would be authorized to make program-wide decisions and recommendations for funding prioritization to Corps’ Headquarters. He or she would provide in-progress reviews and oversight of scope, schedule and budget for design and construction of individual projects in collaboration with the director of the Corps’ Inland Navigation Design Center.
