The Marine Transportation System and the Federal Role Measuring Performance, Targeting Improvement -- Special Report 279 (2004) / Chapter Skim
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1 Background and Introduction
1 Background and Introduction
Pages 15-47
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From page 15... ...
Although vessels are the most obvious and engaging element of the maritime domain, modern marine transporta tion is a large and diverse enterprise sustained by waterway infrastruc ture, waterfront facilities, support services, and interconnections with other modes of transportation. Most of the marine transportation busi ness operates outside the public spotlight, and thus its far-reaching influence on the national and world economy is seldom appreciated or well understood.
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From page 16... ...
Less apparent are the changes that have taken place in how these vessels are used, the infrastructure and services that support and accompany their use, and the demands placed on this use by industry, government, and the public. The marine and broader transportation sectors have kept pace with these demands, and one can make a strong case that without their innovations and efficiencies, the fast pace of economic globalization would not have been possible in the first place.
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From page 17... ...
The traditional division is by "waterside" and "landside" compo nents: the former consist of the navigation aids, channels, and associated infrastructure and services, and the latter consist of port complexes, ter 17
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From page 18... ...
It consists of seaports, harbors, coastal waterways, and oceangoing vessels that accommodate mostly, though not exclusively, cargo moving very long distances overseas (inter nationally and between the U.S. mainland and Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S.
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From page 19... ...
Marine terminals are both publicly and privately owned. Most are pri vately operated and designed to handle particular kinds of commodi ties.
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The shipping channels are marked by navigation aids that range from lighted buoys and beacons to radio navigation systems. The Coast Guard is responsible for placing, maintaining, and operating these aids, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
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From page 21... ...
Terminals handling containerized cargo tend to be located within larger public port complexes with significant warehousing, storage, and intermodal transportation connectivity.
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From page 22... ...
Because most bulk commodities have a relatively low value per ton, transportation makes up a larger share of their total cost than it does for high-value containerized cargo. Hence, to speed loading and unloading and to reduce the dwell time of the ocean vessels and the trains, trucks, and barges that serve them, modern dry bulk terminals have invested in large-capacity cranes, continuous-feed conveyor belts, gravity-fed load 22
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From page 23... ...
. The ports in southern Louisiana are the centers of dry bulk grain traffic, most of which moves down the Mississippi River for export on larger oceangoing ships.
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From page 24... ...
Surface transportation corridors that are prone to congestion can have economic effects that cascade widely. Ocean Vessels Major classes of oceangoing vessels are tankers, containerships, dry bulk and general cargo freighters, and specialized ships such as the roll-on/roll off (ro-ro)
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From page 25... ...
seaports. The world fleet totals about 2,900, and fleet size has been continually rising over time as containerization has become the norm for moving general cargo in international trade (USACE 2003, 90)
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Most of the world's grains are transported in international trade by these vessels. There are about 5,700 dry bulk vessels in the world fleet (USACE 2003, 88)
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From page 27... ...
, but they account for a very small percentage of international passenger trips. 1Specialized excursion vessels that are certificated as passenger vessels by the Coast Guard, such as those engaged in dinner excursions, are not included in this discussion.
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From page 28... ...
Of course, these waterways intersect with the ocean shipping channels in such places as the outlet of the Mississippi River and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, the openings of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers in Oregon and Washington State, and the Great LakesSt. Lawrence Seaway System.
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From page 29... ...
In many places, naviga ble depths would not be maintained and the rivers would not be able to accommodate significant commercial traffic without the active interven tion of the Corps of Engineers in building and operating locks and dams, controlling water flows, dredging channels, and using other channel training structures such as revetments. The Corps of Engineers operates about 170 locks on the inland rivers, most of which are located on the Mississippi River system (USACE 2002a; BTS 1999, 30)
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From page 30... ...
Terminal location is determined by a number of factors, including access to railheads, highways, and pipelines and proximity to commodity suppliers and users. About 60 percent of river terminals handle dry bulk cargoes (DOT 1999, 10)
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. Barges carrying petroleum products, fertil izer, stone, and sand are the primary commercial users.
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From page 32... ...
. The terminals in these ports, as well as most others on the Great Lakes, for the most part handle dry bulk cargoes, led by iron ore, grain, coal, sand, stone, and lumber.
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From page 33... ...
. The growth in international trade has had major implications for marine transportation -- not only for traffic volume, but also for the nature and location of this traffic.
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From page 34... ...
. Hence, at virtually the same time that international trade and demand for container movements were escalating, the transportation industry as a whole was increasingly able and compelled by competition to offer new kinds of ser vices and to introduce technologies that improved service quality and reduced cost.
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From page 35... ...
. Changes in the struc ture of the marine transportation industry have also resulted.
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From page 36... ...
International terrorism, in particular, has created many challenges for the federal government, the MTS, and the freight system generally. The marine transportation sector has long been concerned about cargo theft and the smuggling of contraband and illegal migrants.
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From page 37... ...
In addition to providing a more secure envi ronment, the program promises shippers and receivers faster processing through customs. Meanwhile, the federal Marine Transportation Security Act of 2002 mandates that port authorities, waterfront facilities, and vessels have comprehensive security plans and incident response plans developed in conjunction with the Coast Guard.
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From page 38... ...
For instance, concern over the effects of locks, dams, dredging, and other channel training structures on river ecosystems, as well as the effects of barge operations themselves, has affected federal investment and management decisions on the inland waterways. The potential for ecosystem and floodplain disturbances caused by extending the locks on the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway (to reduce barge traffic delays)
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From page 39... ...
With so many functions, some dating back to the nation's founding, the federal government is presented with a considerable challenge in coordinating them all and making them com plementary and consistent with national priorities. MTS Task Force By the 1990s, the marked changes in the marine transportation sector, some of which were highlighted above, magnified shortcomings in coor dination and consistency of federal marine transportation programs and activities.
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, with members drawn from transportation firms, state and local agencies, industry associations, port authorities, labor unions, academia, shippers, and environmental organizations, to regularly advise the federal ICMTS on maritime transportation issues.
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Subse quently, the General Accounting Office (GAO) , which was asked by Congress to examine more closely the federal role in funding the MTS, noted the absence of definable and measurable national goals for the MTS (GAO 2002)
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From page 42... ...
It therefore elected to focus its efforts on developing the requested analytic framework for federal deci sion making. Recognizing that federal policies are made in a pluralistic and political environment, the committee chose not to provide a highly mechanistic framework for planning and making decisions.
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From page 43... ...
; and 3. Comparing the federal government's roles and responsibilities for marine transportation with its roles and responsibilities for other modes of transportation, including the scope and locus of federal involvement, funding approaches, and means by which program priorities are determined.
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From page 44... ...
The emphasis of the report is on the federal role in supplying, over seeing, operating, and helping to finance the infrastructure and support services essential to the MTS. Other kinds of federal interventions, in areas such as taxation, labor law, and agricultural policy, have profound effects on the marine transportation sector, as they do on many other 44
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From page 45... ...
The federal roles in aviation and highway transportation are discussed in Chapter 4, and they are compared with the federal role in marine transportation. Elements and features of the federal highway and aviation programs that appear beneficial and may be transferable to a federal marine transportation program are identified.
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From page 46... ...
U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends.
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From page 47... ...
2001. Inland Navigation System Planning: The Upper Mississippi RiverIllinois Waterway.
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