The Department of Transportation has announced additional projects that DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said would help “strengthen our supply chains, modernize port operations, and combat inflation.”
Specifically, DOT has designated a new marine highway route, two new marine highway projects, and one project designation extension as part of the Americaʼs Marine Highway Program. The AMHP supports the increased use of domestic navigable waterways to relieve landside congestion, provide new and efficient transportation options, and increase the productivity of the surface transportation system. A marine highway project is a planned service, or expansion of an existing service, on a designated marine highway route. A marine highway route is a navigable waterway capable of transporting freight located in U.S. or its territories.
The new marine highway route is the Kaskaskia River in Illinois, which has been predominantly used to ship bulk commodities of coal, scrubber stone, slag, grain, and scrap metal. However, 40,000-50,000 tons of unitized coil steel are also moved on this waterway, with a new tenant expected to ship up to 1.2 million tons of coiled steel for processing and other uses once it constructs its processing plant.
The two new marine highway projects are (1) an existing ferry service across Lake Michigan between Ludington, Mich., and Manitowoc, Wis., that allows freight trucks (including oversized trucks) and other vehicles to avoid travel around the extremely busy southern route near Chicago, and (2) services transporting containerized freight to and from Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington.
Finally, DOT is extending an existing marine highway project designation for a service transporting goods on barges between Bellingham, Wash., southern Oregon, and San Diego, Calif., to include the port of Umpqua, which loads lumber for discharge in San Diego and receives empty containers for use by shippers in Oregon.
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