Page 19: of Marine News Magazine (May 2022)

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Column

Marine Highways of about 95 miles, and the container-on-barge service car-

The America’s Marine rying resin pellets from Baton Rouge to New Orleans for export, using empty containers brought from Memphis.

Highways Program

Some projects were pilot projects that did not become per- is one of several grant programs administered by the U.S. manent operations.

Maritime Administration (MARAD) to promote more ef- It would be fair to say that it has been a challenge to get fective use of the nation’s navigable waterways. This partic- cargo off of the roads and onto the river, worthy as such ular program was established by Congress in 2007 to pro- a cause may be. There are a number of reasons for this, vide grants for projects that would promote water-borne not the least of which is a lack of funding. In some years alternatives to available landside transportation services, the program did not receive any annual appropriations. especially for freight carried by trucks. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, some-

Consistent with this speci? c goal, the program’s statu- times called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act) designated tory authority limits eligible projects to those that either $25 million for the program in FY 2022, which stands mitigate landside congestion or promote “marine high- in sharp contrast to the $2.25 billion over ? ve years that way transportation.” “Marine highway transportation” is IIJA designated for MARAD’s Port Infrastructure Devel- given a very speci? c meaning in the statute. It is de? ned opment Program.

to encompass only cargo carried in a U.S. documented vessel that is: 1. contained in intermodal cargo containers and loaded by crane on the vessel; 2. loaded on the vessel by means of wheeled technology; 3. shipped in discrete units or packages that are handled individually, palletized, or unitized for purposes of trans- portation; or 4. freight vehicles carried aboard commuter ferry boats.

The transportation of such cargo is limited to carriage between ports in the United States or between a port in the

United States and a port in Canada located in the Great

Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway System.

At the time that the program was created, very little cargo was being carried in “marine highway transporta- tion” as de? ned by the statute. Despite MARAD’s best efforts to implement and promote the program, the pro- gram has enjoyed only limited success. The ? rst grants under the program were made by MARAD in FY 2010.

Since then, a total of 40 grants have been made to 24 eligible projects through FY 2021, for a total of approxi- mately $46.5 million.

Nearly all of the projects funded by the program have been for transportation of eligible “wheeled” cargo over relatively short distances, the most successful of which have been the container-on-barge service between Hamp- ton Roads and Richmond on the James River, a distance www.marinelink.com MN 19|