Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 1993)

Infrastructure: Needs And Realities (Continued from page 23)

The industry then becomes the real victim.

We must encourage the govern- ment to find ways of stretching the available resources and stop flirting with the notion that funds are unconstrained.

What is needed now is sound

Trust Fund management, manage- ment with the skill to match real need with real resources. AWO be- lieves the Inland Waterways Users

Board is best equipped to meet this management challenge.

If, in years to come, Trust Fund revenues are deemed insufficient to meet the real needs of the infra- structure, the government must be made to look beyond the towing in- dustry for revenue.

Our industry is not the only ben- eficiary of a sound, reliable inland waterway infrastructure.

Municipalities depend on the sys- tem for water supplies, flood con- trol, hydropower and recreation; en- vironmentally sensitive areas and wildlife habitats are protected; and hundreds of river-related services and industries exist and profit only though dependence on the lock and dam system.

Collectively, these public and pri- vate uses clearly surpass those of commercial navigation, yet those users pay nothing. Even without an increasing need for funds, fairness would demand these recipients pay their share.

AWO's lobbying role will remain unchanged, combating any unnec- essary or premature increase to the fuel tax while continuing to educate those who propose spending more than the industry can provide.

In addition to concerns over the

Trust Fund, actual costs of infra- structure projects have escalated far beyond original estimates.

Today's projects, typically esti- mated at $300 million or more, have an unacceptably high probability of incurringmajorcostoverruns. Origi- nal cost estimates for projects cur- rently under construction totalled just less than $2 billion. Current projections for those same projects are $2.7 billion, or a 35 percent over- run. That must change.

We must insist that our dollars be used in a cost effective and efficient manner.

The Corps has often proven itself a world leader in engineering skills.

Today, it must prove itself a world leader in cost management.

The Corps must concentrate its efforts on identifying real need and how to match that real need with the work that is necessary, but no more than that.

Installations must not be placed at risk, but projects must be stretched out to allow maximum use of exist- ing facilities. Honing in on real need is the touchstone, and the Corps cer- tainly has the engineering expertise to do just that.

Next, the Corps must forgo its tendency to keep the pipeline filled with projects and resist efforts to promote projects that do not meet the test real need. The advice and counsel of the Users Board should weigh most heavily in these deci- sions.

Finally, those projects that go for- ward must be designed to minimize construction cost and completed within budget restrictions.

As a new Congress and Adminis- tration take the helm, the deficit will certainly be addressed. Both Con- gress and the Administration have a mandate to reduce the Federal defi- cit.

The barge and towing industry must be alert to two probable initia- tives in 1993 and beyond.

First, reductions in defense spend- ing will potentially reduce the size and service provided by the Coast

Guard and Corps of Engineers.

Second, cost sharing and user fee proposals will surely be pursued in an effort to decrease government out- lays.

Previous initiatives such as ef- forts to secure private funding for

Corps of Engineers operating and maintenance activities will probably resurface, and the towing industry will be the prime target.

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