Inland waterways play a major role in moving grain. They also assist in the transportation of fertilizer. Nonetheless, locks and dams are important when it comes to the movement of goods, and disruptions of flow tends to wreak havoc all across the waterway and into rural America.
?The locks and dams in the Upper Mississippi River recently reopened. They?re typically closed for a few months during the winter. One of the first products that gets transported on this system after these locks are reopened is fertilizer. It is an inopportune time for any kind of closure on the system,? Soy Transportation Coalition executive director Mike Steenhoek said.
Lock and Dam No. 11, in Dubuque, Iowa, closed earlier this week due to cracks spotted on the lock. Steenhoek says the closure will impact large fertilizer shipments, but only for a couple of days. He adds word of closure is not welcoming news, and is the harsh reality of insufficient funding.
?There needs to be adequate funding for locks and dams. The funding needs to be provided in a predictable fashion, that?s a key point to make and we need to do a better job of emphasizing preservation and maintenance. One of the arguments I make is a predictably good inland waterway system is better than a hypothetically great inland waterway system.?
Steenhoek fears crippled inland waterway systems will continue to crumble throughout the shipping season. He reminds us of last year’s damages, along the Ohio River.
?I think it?s only reasonable to expect that we?ll see similar kinds of occurrences. These assets don?t take care of themselves. You need to have funding, you need to have maintenance. It?s a real important issue for us. You don?t have to be an engineer from MIT to diagnose that it?s only going to be a matter of time until you see a failure along the system,? Steenhoek said. ?If that were to occur, particularly during harvest time, it could really have detrimental impacts of the soybean and corn farmer.?
