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The cure for traffic congestion: Marine highways?
By Aaron Huff
Recent studies suggest that moving more freight to rivers could alleviate congestion along some of the nation’s busiest freight corridors, such as Interstate 95 on the East Coast and the Ambassador Bridge crossing between the United States and Canada at Detroit.
On Feb. 15, the U.S. House's Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., held a hearing on short sea shipping (SSS) as a viable alternative to shipping freight by truck. The purpose of the hearing, Cummings said, was to determine whether government help is necessary for SSS to become a solution to traffic congestion.
In his opening statements, Cummings said maritime transportation accounts for 13 percent of the total freight tonnage moved in the country, compared to 70 percent by trucks. All transportation modes receive more attention than maritime, he said. As an example, the 2007 federal budget for maritime transportation is $446 million, compared to $39 billion in federal highway aid.
"Congestion should be the top concern for every driver stuck behind a semi truck in rush hour," Cummings said.
The term “short sea shipping” means moving commercial freight between domestic ports via inland and coastal waterways. Most of the domestic freight moved by water is bulk cargo such as petroleum and grain that is less time-sensitive than most truck cargo.
SSS proponents such as SeaBridge Inc., based in Arlington, Va., are targeting long-haul truck movements, saying trucks and drivers could be ferried for quick movement along the East Coast. For example, SeaBridge says a driver could pick up a shipment in Connecticut, drive to a port in New York and board a high-speed ferry bound to northern Florida. While on the ferry, the driver could sleep and get his federally mandated rest period.
U.S. Maritime Administrator Sean Connaughton testified that waterways or "marine highways" are underused, though a few shippers are moving containers through inland waterways and the Great Lakes, thus taking cargo off the roadways.
Getting shippers to buy into SSS services along the East Coast is difficult because facilities, port space and vessels are lacking, Connaughton said. "It is difficult to find capacity to support these operations."
He also pointed to financial impediments such as the harbor maintenance tax (HMT) that forces shippers to pay a tax repeatedly on the same cargo moved between domestic ports.
A recent study by the Short Sea Shipping Cooperative Program (SCOOP), a public-private partnership, found that the HMT yielded $1.7 to $1.9 million in tax revenue per year for domestic containers. "That seems like a little bit of money," Cunningham said. "If HMT is the major impediment to short sea shipping, what is the problem?"
U.S. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, suggested the subcommittee send legislation to the full House Transportation Committee that would exempt certain cargo from the HMT.
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