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37 The results of this research project should be considered as a proof of concept that entities with full access to confidential data can build on to achieve their desired project evaluation objectives. The full utility of this proof of concept will only be achieved if the necessary supporting data are available for analysis. More specifically, for a model such as the one developed in this research project to be effectively deployed, there must be some means of determining the relationship between mainte- nance activities and the actual utilization of the asset (water- way or lock). This model assumed there would be no landside improvements to the identified origin-destination corridors. In the real world, there may be improvements to highways and rail lines occurring simultaneously with waterway/lock improvement projects. These possibilities will need to be factored into a working future-generation model. The researchers chose the metric of tonnage throughput as the metric to be maximized. It would be instructive to include the value of the cargo in the objective function. The case may be that maximizing the throughput of the most valuable cargo would lead to an entirely different set of decisions. S E C T I O N 5 Potential Future Research
