Roundtable
On June 7th and 8th, 2022, the Ports of Morgan City, Krotz Springs, Avoyelles Parish, Central Louisiana Regional, Caddo-Bossier, Natchitoches Parish, and Red River Parish and the Red River Waterway Commission, in partnership with the U. S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD), hosted an Atchafalaya – Red River Maritime Roundtable. The purpose of the event was to look for new opportunities for our Atchafalaya and Red River ports to increase waterway traffic along the designated MARAD M-49 Route that may reduce truck traffic while providing other public benefits to the region.
An avenue was provided for conversation to begin between ports, shippers and industry partners who shared a desire for options for efficient and cost-effective connections for the delivery of products on the U. S. inland river system and across the Gulf of Mexico. The desired benefit would be to improve the bottom line for agribusiness, forestry, chemical industries and shippers of other commodities in the state of Louisiana and throughout the inland river system. The event was a part of MARAD’s roundtable program, where several ports came together as partners to pursue opportunities that would benefit their waterways as a whole.
United States Marine Highway Program
The United States has a versatile and expansive network of navigable waterways, including rivers, bays, channels, coasts, the Great Lakes, open-ocean routes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway System. We like to think of this as “the United States’ marine highway,” a network of maritime routes that have as many benefits (in some cases more) as the United States’ road network.
However, the United States’ waterways are underused. The benefits of using marine routes–such as reducing landside congestion and reducing system wear and tear — are not perceived at the individual level. Using our waterways more consistently would create more public benefits and incentivize shippers to use these critical transportation channels.
Marine Highway Grant Program
The United States Marine Highway Program (USMHP) is a discretionary transportation grant program administered by the Maritime Administration. Funds for the USMHP are awarded on a competitive basis to projects on designated U.S. Marine Highway Routes that provide a coordinated and capable alternative to landside transportation or that promote marine highway transportation. Through the development and promotion of marine highway transportation, the program aims to relieve landside congestion and generate other public benefits by increasing the efficiency of the surface transportation system.
Only projects that serve U.S. Marine Highway Routes designated by the Secretary of Transportation are eligible to apply for USMHP grant funds.