In the News

It’s common to hear talk on Capitol Hill about the need for infrastructure related to the three Rs: roads, rails and runways.

But one critical “R” is missing: rivers.

“That fourth ‘R’ carries far more tonnage far more efficiently, and far more environmentally sound,” said Tom Heinold, chief of the Operations Division at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District.

Heinold welcomed a small group, including U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Moline, on Aug. 5 at Lock and Dam 15 in Rock Island. The congressman’s goal was to understand firsthand how the locks and dams operate on the Upper Mississippi River and the need to modernize the inland waterway system.

“We were able to see the process of how you have to split up the barges (going through the lock) because we’re utilizing technology that’s 90 years old here,” Sorensen said. “The locks are half the length that we need them to be today.”

“With the agricultural sector, there are other countries around the world that are more and more competitive, and then we see how this is a piece of our infrastructure that doesn’t work,” he said. “My job today was not just learning how we need to improve it, but now taking that message back to Washington so that we can get the funding permanently in the federal budget.”

Sorensen emphasized bipartisan Congressional support in the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP), which is a long-term, dual-purpose program that integrates navigation improvements and ecosystem restoration to the Upper Mississippi River System.

“But I think it’s going to take more than that,” Sorensen told FarmWeek. “This needs to be in the president’s budget. We need to think about the riverways the same as we do infrastructure, for rail, for roads and for runways. We have to think about the rivers as one-fourth of that puzzle.”

The current 600-foot lock was not designed for modern tows, which typically include 15 barges that need to be decoupled and recoupled to move through the system. The process can take upwards of an hour.

“For every tow like that, that comes through this lock, there are more than 1,000 tractor trailers that don’t have to travel our highways,” Heinold told RFD Radio during Sorensen’s visit. “It’s a very, very efficient way to transport bulk goods. And honestly, it’s the backbone of our economy.”

By doubling the size of the lock from 600 feet to 1,200 feet, the system will run more efficiently since barges won’t have to be disassembled to fit through the lock.

Paul Rohde, vice president of the Waterways Council, said the uncoupling and recoupling of the barges is also dangerous to mariners.

“It’s terribly inefficient, which is why it’s a marvel that even with these inefficiencies, barges are still the most efficient way to move bulk commodities,” he told RFD Radio.

The visit was made possible through collaboration with Illinois Farm Bureau, Waterways Council, Ingram Barge Company and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

Rodney Knittel, IFB associate director of transportation and infrastructure, said overseas competition is a huge factor in modernizing the lock and dam system.

“(The inland waterways system) is a hidden gem. It’s kept us as a competitor in global markets,” Knittel said. “That’s why it’s so drastically important to improve our infrastructure that we have here on the river.”

South of Lock and Dam 15, a $732 million expansion started last year at Lock and Dam 25 in Winfield, Missouri. That project entails doubling the size of the lock to 1,200 feet. The USACE will spend more than $1.3 billion to upgrade inland waterway systems across Illinois, with a majority of those funds used for the Lock 25 expansion.

Sorensen said the visit prepared him to fight for permanent funding to modernize the entire antiquated lock and dam system.

“I want to see this funding be purposefully put into the federal budget so that we can continue the process and finish the job from St. Louis to St. Paul,” Sorensen said.