Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

fastlane

New canal meets Old Man River

An expanded Panama Canal could mean a big boost in traffic for the U.S. inland waterway system. But not if the Mississippi's aging locks aren't repaired or replaced.

With the Panama Canal expansion scheduled for completion in 2016, a lot of thought is being given to possible shifts in patterns for shipping containers in and out of the country. Once giant containerships begin sailing through the canal, East Coast port volumes are expected to rise, and ports are deepening and expanding their channels and installing large cranes necessary for unloading the bigger vessels. At this point, I don't think anyone really knows how much volume will be diverted from the congested, labor-uncertain West Coast ports, but it should be significant. A recent study by C.H. Robinson and the Boston Consulting Group suggests that up to 10 percent of container traffic to the U.S. from East Asia could shift from West Coast ports to East Coast ports by 2020.

In the Midsouth and Midwest, observers are particularly interested in what will happen at the Port of New Orleans. With a depth of 200 feet, this port is located on the deepest section of the Mississippi River and will have no draft issues. Port officials predict that container traffic will increase by about 7 percent initially. The question is, where do the containers go from there? The channel between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La., is about 45 feet with a 50-foot depth at Baton Rouge. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for maintaining the country's waterways, is considering dredging five feet from the lower Mississippi in order to accommodate large ships as far up as Baton Rouge. The projected cost is $300 million, but port experts believe the project could generate another 24 million tons of cargo for Louisiana ports over an eight-year period.


Even so, Baton Rouge is located a long way from other major cities on the river, and the Corps of Engineers is responsible for maintaining only a nine-foot depth between Baton Rouge and Minneapolis. While cities like Vicksburg, Miss.; Memphis, Tenn.; and St. Louis, Mo.; have deeper harbors, the only way for a container to traverse the length of the river is to be transferred to a barge.

That's just the first of many hurdles the container may face on its journey inland. Once the tows get beyond St. Louis and start to move into the upper Mississippi or other rivers, they face a variety of infrastructure-related challenges. For starters, there's the matter of creaky river locks. The U.S. has 12,000 miles of navigable waterways, almost all of which are part of the Mississippi River system. On these 12,000 miles, there are 242 locks, most of which are 60 to 70 years old and showing their age. Their mechanized gates malfunction, and the locks themselves are in a serious state of disrepair. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, in 2011, a 280-foot section of concrete lock wall crumbled into the Illinois River. The publication also noted that many of these locks are "too small to accommodate the towboat and its typical 15-barge load," forcing the tow to break up the string of barges and make multiple trips. On top of that, there are 170 bridges across the Mississippi, some of which are so low that towboats must be equipped with telescoping pilothouses to pass beneath them.

As is the case with the rest of the country's infrastructure, the U.S. waterways desperately need funding. The Corps of Engineers estimates that it will take an additional $13 billion through 2020 to make the necessary repairs and replacements. Without this added funding, repairs cannot be completed until 2090.

Fortunately, there is a simple and efficient, though more expensive, way to move the containers up the river—by railroad; and in my opinion, containers on barges will not become a major mode of transport. Among other problems, it would be slow and require a significant facility expenditure at each of the destination cities. However, it is unfortunate that shippers along this powerful river do not at least have a reliable lower-cost option.

The Latest

More Stories

photo of containers at port of montreal

Port of Montreal says activities are back to normal following 2024 strike

Container traffic is finally back to typical levels at the port of Montreal, two months after dockworkers returned to work following a strike, port officials said Thursday.

Canada’s federal government had mandated binding arbitration between workers and employers through the country’s Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) in November, following labor strikes on both coasts that shut down major facilities like the ports of Vancouver and Montreal.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

autonomous tugger vehicle
Lift Trucks, Personnel & Burden Carriers

Cyngn delivers autonomous tuggers to wheel maker COATS

photo of a cargo ship cruising

Project44 tallies supply chain impacts of a turbulent 2024

Following a year in which global logistics networks were buffeted by labor strikes, natural disasters, regional political violence, and economic turbulence, the supply chain visibility provider Project44 has compiled the impact of each of those events in a new study.

The “2024 Year in Review” report lists the various transportation delays, freight volume restrictions, and infrastructure repair costs of a long string of events. Those disruptions include labor strikes at Canadian ports and postal sites, the U.S. East and Gulf coast port strike; hurricanes Helene, Francine, and Milton; the Francis Scott key Bridge collapse in Baltimore Harbor; the CrowdStrike cyber attack; and Red Sea missile attacks on passing cargo ships.

Keep ReadingShow less
diagram of transportation modes

Shippeo gains $30 million backing for its transportation visibility platform

The French transportation visibility provider Shippeo today said it has raised $30 million in financial backing, saying the money will support its accelerated expansion across North America and APAC, while driving enhancements to its “Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platform” product.

The funding round was led by Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth fund, with participation from existing investors: Battery Ventures, Partech, NGP Capital, Bpifrance Digital Venture, LFX Venture Partners, Shift4Good and Yamaha Motor Ventures. With this round, Shippeo’s total funding exceeds $140 million.

Keep ReadingShow less
Cover image for the white paper, "The threat of resiliency and sustainability in global supply chain management: expectations for 2025."

CSCMP releases new white paper looking at potential supply chain impact of incoming Trump administration

Donald Trump has been clear that he plans to hit the ground running after his inauguration on January 20, launching ambitious plans that could have significant repercussions for global supply chains.

With a new white paper—"The threat of resiliency and sustainability in global supply chain management: Expectations for 2025”—the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) seeks to provide some guidance on what companies can expect for the first year of the second Trump Administration.

Keep ReadingShow less
grocery supply chain workers

ReposiTrak and Upshop link platforms to enable food traceability

ReposiTrak, a global food traceability network operator, will partner with Upshop, a provider of store operations technology for food retailers, to create an end-to-end grocery traceability solution that reaches from the supply chain to the retail store, the firms said today.

The partnership creates a data connection between suppliers and the retail store. It works by integrating Salt Lake City-based ReposiTrak’s network of thousands of suppliers and their traceability shipment data with Austin, Texas-based Upshop’s network of more than 450 retailers and their retail stores.

Keep ReadingShow less