Page 39: of Marine News Magazine (May 2019)

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INLAND LOGISTICS 8:

The Corps of Engineers historically uses a ton-mile, volume-based com- modity measurement system which can fail to capture cargo value, both in dollars and economic impact. For ex- ample, a $1 million fabricated module may only weigh 100 tons but it may be transported to a $4 billion con- struction site creating thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in com- merce. Without the waterways these construction projects would not hap- pen. The economic loss would easily eclipse the singular value of the freight.

In his closing comments at the

WCI meeting, Mike Little asked rhe- torically: “Why wouldn’t we fund the modernization of our lock-and-dam sys- tems?” A timely question. Transporta- tion infrastructure funding remains an unresolved, high-priority issue. These pictures surely focus that discussion.

And, anyone can see that. Right?

Tom Ewing is a free- lance writer special- izing in energy and environmental issues.

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