Page 14: of Marine News Magazine (May 2020)

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).3)'(43

Construction at the

Charleroi Lock & Dam ethical and legal constraints of the Commission. In my role of

Aging river infrastructure is a major concern for those supporting waterway commerce, I organize and participate in operating on the United States’ inland waterways. Where tours, programs and press conferences to educate our elected are your top infrastructure concerns for the Port of of?cials, stakeholders, community agencies, and the recre-

Pittsburgh today, and what’s required to address them?

ation boating community on the federal funding issues for A major lock or dam failure at any of locks or dams in our lock and dam projects. district. Our ?rst priority is the need to complete the Lower

Mon Project. This project has been ongoing for 26 years due to

Please give a “by the numbers” rundown of the Port lack of adequate funding. The Water Resource Development of Pittsburgh.

of 2014 allowed the project to get back on track, and the proj-

The Port of Pittsburgh Commission is 200 miles of navi- ect is now funded to completion. The anticipated date is 2023.

gable waterway in 12 counties. There are approximately 160 The second priority, is to receive a new start construction terminal facilities and 17 sets of locks and dams located on on the Ohio River (Upper Ohio Navigation Project). This the Allegheny, Ohio, and Monongahela Rivers. In 2017, our project will build one new 600-foot lock chamber at Ems- locks handled 86.5 million tons of cargo. The busiest locks worth L/D, Dashields L/D and Montgomery L/D.

perform as many as 300 commercial lockages per month. In 2018, 21.6 million tons of inbound, outbound and intra-port

Which speci?c infrastructure improvement project(s) cargo was moved in the Port District.

presently needed or underway will have the greatest positive impact?

What about jobs and GDP?

The Upper Ohio Navigation Project will have the greatest

We are currently working with Texas A&M Transporta- positive impact. It is the gateway to the rest of the navigation tion Institute on an Economic Impact Study to gather the system. The largest construction project, a cracker plant being latest data. It is premature for me to quote any statistical build by Shell is located on the Ohio River. The facility would data at this time, but our report should be completed late have never been built in this region without access to the river. summer, early fall. Most of the components that went into building that facility

May 2020 14 MN