Published: October 22, 2009 11:24 pm      

Aging infrastructure creating problems for Ports

Extent unknown on local impact of Markland Lock failure

The environmental impact, efficiency and cost effectiveness of barge transportation was touted at the Ports of Indiana Commission meeting held in Jeffersonville on Thursday.

Jeffersonville port Director Matt Smolek outlined the benefits and growth potential for the city’s adjacent waterway as an integral part of the inland waterway system, but infrastructure problems may hamper the industry overall.

The inland waterways moved about 584 million tons of goods — most commonly coal and petroleum — in 2008, with the Ohio River handling 32 percent of the traffic. “The energy sector, by far, is the biggest consumer of barge traffic on the river system,” Smolek said. “[It’s] over 50 percent of all of the commerce shipped.”

And there is still room for more.

The capacity of a barge is much greater than other modes of transportation, with 15 railcars or 80 trucks being needed to equal one barge load. As many as 15 barges can make up one tow, which equal 225 railcars or 900 truckloads.

Moving that amount of cargo lessens the quantity of fuel used in shipping, reducing emissions and traffic on overland roadways, Smolek said.

But like any industry, barge transportation is not without its problems.

The moving of time-sensitive material, security regulations, work force retention and the condition of the locks and dam infrastructure are challenges facing the industry.

In particular, the lock and dam issue is creating a major problem for transporting goods up and down the Ohio River.

In late September, Markland Lock — located in between Vevay and Warsaw, Ky. — lost its lower gates on its large 1,200-foot chamber.

The cause of the gate to fail and buckle is under investigation, but the 1,200-foot lock is inoperable — a smaller 600-foot lock is still functioning — and one leaf of the gate is laying at the bottom of the larger chamber.

“What that’s done is doubled the lock time [for traffic to pass through],” said Eugene Dowell, operations manager for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Louisville district. “It’s slowed down traffic quite a bit on the Ohio River.”

The lock handles about 55 million tons of product, equating to 2,400 tows, through it each year and is creating a bottleneck upstream.

“Right now, the queue fluctuates up there from zero to about 15 to 16 tows,” Dowell said. “I think traffic is down a little bit, at least right now, but as the queue increases, it’s going to slow things down.

“I suspect they will be looking for other ways to transport materials if it gets to be a real problem.”

While the corps is working to repair the gate, it may be some time before the lock is back in operation. Dowell would not venture a guess on the timeframe or the cost to repair the gate, other than to say that it will be in the millions of dollars and time will be dependent upon water levels and weather.

The corps was aware the Markland location was beyond its design life, but the bigger concern is the large portion of the infrastructure that is out of date.

Currently, 25 percent of the locks on the Ohio River have exceeded their design life and within six years, the number will reach 50 percent, an official with the corps said.

Uric Dufrene, Sanders chair of the Indiana University Southeast business department, said that it is difficult to determine the breadth of the impact the shipping problems could have on the local economy.

“Anytime you’re going to have a disruption in the supply lines, you’re going to have an impact,” he said.

The significance of the impact is dependent upon what manufacturing and logistics companies need the goods being transported and how many actually stop in Jeffersonville.

“It certainly doesn’t help,” Dufrene said.



BY THE NUMBERS

55 million — tons of commodities pass through Markland Locks annually



SHIP IT!

Most commonly shipped and amounts of cargo shipped down the Ohio River in 2008:

• Coal — 128,350,000 tons

• Petroleum — 16,960,000 tons

• Agricultural products — 60,630,000 tons