Inland Marine Transportation System News

Birdon America announced it has selected  Coden, Ala. shipbuilder Master Boat Builders to build the superstructures for the U.S. Coast Guard's Waterways Commerce Cutter (WCC) program.In 2022, Birdon was awarded a contract worth up to $1.187 billion to design and build up to 27 new vessels under the WCC program, including 16 River Buoy Tenders (WLR) and 11 Inland Construction Tenders (WLIC). The vessels will be constructed within a 10-year period commencing with an 18-month design finalization period.Birdon had previously tapped Louisiana-based Bollinger Shipyards to build the hulls…

Birdon America, Inc. on Tuesday announced it has awarded the first wave of major subcontracts in support of its $1.187 billion contract to design and build 27 Waterways Commerce Cutters (WCC) for the U.S. Coast Guard. This announcement follows a successful initial Program Management Review (PMR), the first major milestone of the WCC program.The subcontracts range in value from $10 million to $50 million and are firm-fixed price (FFP), indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) for design, development, manufacturing and delivery.

Grant Pecoraro, is the U.S. managing director for naval architecture and marine engineering company Incat Crowther. The Australia-based firm’s Incat Crowther USA arm has been in business for over 10 years, and the broader Incat Crowther group is approaching 50 years in business. To date, Incat Crowther has delivered more than 650 vessels, with 130 vessels currently on the order books.Please give an overview of Incat Crowther’s U.S. presence as well as its offering to the American market.

Infrastructure Projects: Perhaps Not So Quixotic After All? Over the course of 2014, significant steps forward were taken in the quest to find additional sources of funding for inland waterways infrastructure projects. First came the long awaited and much-celebrated Water Resources, Reform and Development Act of 2014 (WRRDA) in June, which included several provisions to address the funding needs of the ever-worsening condition of the inland waterways infrastructure. WRRDA eased…

Earlier this year, the U.S. maritime industry in general, and the inland waterways industry in particular, celebrated the long-awaited passage of the Water Resources, Reform and Development Act of 2014. Among the accomplishments of this legislation were provisions to address the funding needs of the ever-worsening condition of the inland waterways infrastructure. Among these provisions are Sections 2004 and 5014 of WRRDA. Of the two provisions, the public-private partnership (P3) pilot program under Section 5014 has received substantially more attention in the maritime press and at industry conferences than have the studies of federally tax-exempt bonds and potential sources of additional revenue for the IWTF under Section 2004.

Collaboration is a wonderful thing. And in Washington, DC, it seems to be a concept that has become more alien than ever before, with partisan politics that have gripped the nation’s capital. But teamwork is alive and well in the inland waterways industry when it comes to supporting the concept of increasing the amount of investment raised for lock and dam infrastructure on the inland system. Since 1986, commercial inland towing operators have been paying a user fee of 20-cents-per-gallon of fuel used while operating on the inland system that is deposited into the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF). Those monies are then matched by General Treasury dollars and spent for the purpose of new construction and major rehabilitation work on the inland waterways.

Capital Development Plan Most Comprehensive Solution for Addressing Waterways’ Infrastructure Funding, Construction Reform Needs. In a letter sent yesterday to Representative Jeb Hensarling and Senator Patty Murray, Co-Chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, Waterways Council Inc. (WCI) President and CEO Michael J. Toohey urged the “Super Committee” to nix the user fee provision in the Inland Waterways Capital Investment Act (IWCIA). The Obama Administration…

The Inland Waterways Users Board adopted a final report that accompanies a new comprehensive, consensus-based package of recommendations formulated by an industry and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working group to improve the continued vitality of the U.S. inland navigation system over the next 20 years. The report and recommendations are being sent to Congress and if adopted, will better address the needs of the entire system and provide more dollars for greatly needed infrastructure improvements. The Users Board is a federal advisory committee that provides advice to Congress and the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works). This…

Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI) held a press event on March 8 at the National Press Club to address the President’s FY 2011 budget request for the Army Corps of Engineers, and to outline the new comprehensive, consensus-based package of recommendations formulated by an industry and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working group to improve the reliability of the U.S. inland navigation system over the next 20 years. If adopted by Congress, these recommendations will better address the needs of the entire system and provide more funding for much needed infrastructure improvements. The set of recommendations is receiving strong indications of…

The Board of Directors of the National Waterways Conference voted to support the draft Inland Marine Transportation System Capital Investment Strategy endorsed by the Inland Waterways Users Board at its meeting in New Orleans on December 15, 2009. The unanimous vote signals the Board’s recognition of the urgent need for adequate funding for our nation’s water resources infrastructure. Developed over the course of the past year under the auspices of the Inland Waterways Users Board, the Strategy is the culmination of a collaborative effort by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and industry representatives to develop a comprehensive funding and investment plan for construction and major rehabilitation projects along the 12,000 mile system of inland waterways.

On the heels of the release of the President’s FY 2011 budget, Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI) is urging Congress to adopt a new comprehensive, consensus-based package of recommendations formulated by an industry and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working group to ensure the continued vitality of the U.S. inland navigation system for the next 20 years. If adopted, these recommendations would better address the needs of the entire system and provide more dollars for greatly needed infrastructure improvements. This proposal is supported by industry and government as a way to fund the navigation system in lieu of the imposition of a lockage fee unsuccessfully offered in the last two fiscal year budgets and strongly opposed by WCI and Members of Congress.

On January 12, the Board of Directors of Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI) voted unanimously to endorse the recommendations of the industry-U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Inland Marine Transportation System Capital Investment Strategy Team for a 20-year Capital Development Plan. The plan would improve the Corps of Engineers’ project management and processes to deliver projects on time and on budget, prioritize navigation modernization projects across the entire inland waterway system, and provide a workable and affordable funding mechanism to meet the system’s future capital investment needs. The industry/Corps team believes that these recommendations would set a future course over the near term for efficient investment in our nation’s critically important inland waterways infrastructure.

Rick Calhoun, president of Cargill Marine and Terminal, Inc., has been elected chairman of the Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI), the national public policy organization advocating a modern and well-maintained national system of ports and inland waterways. “We are at a critical juncture in the U.S. waterways,” Calhoun said. “The waterways infrastructure is aging, with more than half of our nation’s 240 lock chambers operated by the U.S. WCI is supported by more than 200 waterways carriers…

The American Waterways Operators, the national trade association for the tugboat, towboat and barge industry, criticized the proposal in the Obama Administration's Fiscal Year 2010 budget to replace the inland waterways fuel tax with a lockage tax. A similar idea was proposed by the Bush Administration and rejected by the 110th Congress. AWO urges Congress to reject it again. AWO contended that replacing the excise tax on fuel that equitably distributes taxes on all commercial waterways users with a lock usage tax would impose disproportionate tax burdens on vessels transiting certain segments of the inland waterways, while other vessels using the system would pay little or nothing.