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Upgrades to inland waterways require systems approach

For the nation’s inland waterway system to expand, every lock needs to have an upgrade.

“Most of the marine corporations would love to see bigger locks, but it’s just a matter of overcoming all of the—‘Shall we shut the lock down to make it bigger?’  ‘How are we going to pay for making it bigger?’—there’s a lot of elements out there that are just unanswered right now.”

Federal park ranger Gary Shea with the Army Corp of Engineers is stationed at Starved Rock Lock and Dam on the Illinois River, also the largest state park in the Illinois.

He tells Brownfield like many along the river, the single lock operates much like it did when it was built in the 1930s, but today’s transportation needs and size of shipments continue to increase.  “Stopping the amount of river traffic for as long as it would take to rehab this lock, there would have to be some way of keeping traffic going versus just not letting them through for a couple of years.”

Just one of eight locks in the Illinois Waterway System which connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, the Starved Rock Lock and Dam has only been able to keep pace with minimal maintenance needs in recent years.

Shea says for major improvements to be made funding needs to be available in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) which was passed more than a decade ago but still hasn’t been appropriated funding.

Shea spoke with Brownfield during a recent Illinois Soybean Association transportation tour.

AUDIO: Interview with Gary Shea