National Academies Press: OpenBook

North American Marine Highways (2010)

Chapter: Front Matter

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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. North American Marine Highways. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14406.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. North American Marine Highways. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14406.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2010 www.TRB.org N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E F R E I G H T R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCFRP REPORT 5 Subscriber Categories Freight Transportation • Marine Transportation • Operations and Traffic Management • Policy • Terminals and Facilities North American Marine Highways C. James Kruse TEXAS TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE Houston, TX A N D Nathan Hutson CENTER FOR TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH Austin, TX Research sponsored by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE FREIGHT RESEARCH PROGRAM America’s freight transportation system makes critical contributions to the nation’s economy, security, and quality of life. The freight transportation system in the United States is a complex, decentralized, and dynamic network of private and public entities, involving all modes of transportation—trucking, rail, waterways, air, and pipelines. In recent years, the demand for freight transportation service has been increasing fueled by growth in international trade; however, bottlenecks or congestion points in the system are exposing the inadequacies of current infrastructure and operations to meet the growing demand for freight. Strategic operational and investment decisions by governments at all levels will be necessary to maintain freight system performance, and will in turn require sound technical guidance based on research. The National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) is a cooperative research program sponsored by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) under Grant No. DTOS59-06-G-00039 and administered by the Transportation Research Board (TRB). The program was authorized in 2005 with the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). On September 6, 2006, a contract to begin work was executed between RITA and The National Academies. The NCFRP will carry out applied research on problems facing the freight industry that are not being adequately addressed by existing research programs. Program guidance is provided by an Oversight Committee comprised of a representative cross section of freight stakeholders appointed by the National Research Council of The National Academies. The NCFRP Oversight Committee meets annually to formulate the research program by identifying the highest priority projects and defining funding levels and expected products. Research problem statements recommending research needs for consideration by the Oversight Committee are solicited annually, but may be submitted to TRB at any time. Each selected project is assigned to a panel, appointed by TRB, which provides technical guidance and counsel throughout the life of the project. Heavy emphasis is placed on including members representing the intended users of the research products. The NCFRP will produce a series of research reports and other products such as guidebooks for practitioners. Primary emphasis will be placed on disseminating NCFRP results to the intended end-users of the research: freight shippers and carriers, service providers, suppliers, and public officials. Published reports of the NATIONAL COOPERATIVE FREIGHT RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at: http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America NCFRP REPORT 5 Project NCFRP-17 ISSN 1947-5659 ISBN 978-0-309-15489-5 Library of Congress Control Number 2010931770 © 2010 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, RITA, or PHMSA endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not- for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the National Cooperative Freight Research Program, conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The members of the technical panel selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. The report was reviewed by the technical panel and accepted for publication according to procedures established and overseen by the Transportation Research Board and approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this report are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, or the program sponsors. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, and the sponsors of the National Cooperative Freight Research Program do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of the report.

CRP STAFF FOR NCFRP REPORT 5 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs William C. Rogers, Senior Program Officer Charlotte Thomas, Senior Program Assistant Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Hilary Freer, Senior Editor NCFRP PROJECT 17 PANEL Rodney Gregory, Business Transformation Agency, Reston, VA (Chair) Michael S. Bomba, Alliance Transportation Group, Austin, TX Kristin Decas, New Bedford Harbor Development Commission, New Bedford, MA John K. DeCrosta, American President Lines Limited, Washington, DC A.N. “Tassos” Perakis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Brian G. Pfeifer, BEC Industries, Inc., Tallahassee, FL Craig Philip, Ingram Barge Company, Nashville, TN Roberta E. Weisbrod, Partnership for Sustainable Ports, LLP, Brooklyn, NY Michael Gordon, US Maritime Administration Liaison Joedy W. Cambridge, TRB Liaison AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research reported herein was performed under NCFRP Project 17 by the Center for Ports and Water- ways, Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), The Texas A&M University System. C. James Kruse, the Director of TTI’s Center for Ports and Waterways, was the Project Director and Principal Investigator. Nathan Hutson of the University of Texas’ Center for Transportation Research contributed to this report. C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S

NCFRP Report 5: North American Marine Highways presents an evaluation of the poten- tial for moving intermodal containers on chassis, non-containerized trailers, or rail cars on marine highways in North America. The report is especially valuable for its assessment of the conditions for feasibility; its analysis of the economic, technical, regulatory, and logisti- cal barriers inhibiting greater use of the marine highway system; and proposed solutions for barrier elimination. This report will enable public and private stakeholders to better under- stand the underlying reasons for the current underutilization of the marine highway system. The United States has an abundance of navigable rivers, lakes, canals, seaways, and coastal waterways. This marine highway system (often referred to as short sea shipping) is used to move billions of tons of freight each year; however, less than 4 percent of the Nation’s domestic freight (by volume) moves by water, compared to 1957, when over 31 percent moved by water (National Transportation Statistics, Bureau of Transportation Sta- tistics). Greater use of the marine highway system capacity could reduce major choke points on highways and railroads, reduce fuel consumption, and reduce air pollution and green- house gas emissions. Under NCFRP Project 17, the Texas Transportation Institute was asked to (1) identify and analyze the successes and failures of past and existing North American marine highway operations; (2) identify and assess the impact of current barriers and constraints, as well as propose strategies to overcome them; (3) identify the necessary conditions for success and evaluate the feasibility of expanded North American marine operations; and (5) discuss public policy implications for marine highway shipping that could be used as a resource for the development of a national freight transportation policy, emphasizing existing multi- modal comparative analyses from a public and private capital investment perspective. F O R E W O R D By William C. Rogers Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

C O N T E N T S 1 Summary 1 Introduction 1 Findings 4 Conclusions 7 Chapter 1 Background 10 Chapter 2 Research Approach 12 Chapter 3 Findings and Applications 12 Ventures 13 Shipper Requirements 13 Vessel Issues 21 Legislation 22 The European Experience 25 Obstacles 33 Miscellaneous Considerations 35 Chapter 4 Conclusions and Suggested Research 35 Economic Framework 44 Planning and Operations 53 Potential Topics for Follow-on Research 55 References 57 APPENDIX A Table of Interviewee Characteristics 59 APPENDIX B Table of North American Marine Highway Ventures 65 APPENDIX C Tabulation of Shipper Requirements 67 APPENDIX D Compilation of Potential Obstacles to the Development of Marine Highways 75 APPENDIX E Marine Highways Legislation with Committee Referrals 81 APPENDIX F Quebec Province Assistance Program Aiming to Reduce or Avoid Greenhouse Gas Emissions 83 APPENDIX G Annotated Bibliography 98 APPENDIX H Acronyms Note: Many of the photographs, figures, and tables in this report have been converted from color to grayscale for printing. The electronic version of the report (posted on the Web at www.trb.org) retains the color versions.

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TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 5: North American Marine Highways explores the potential for moving intermodal containers on chassis, non-containerized trailers, or rail cars on marine highways in North America. The report includes an assessment of the conditions for feasibility; an analysis of the economic, technical, regulatory, and logistical barriers inhibiting greater use of the marine highway system; and potential ways to eliminate these barriers.

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