AMERICA'S MARINE HIGHWAYS PROGRAM

Congestion on our roads and rail lines already costs Americans an estimated $200 billion annually – and it continues to grow. And over the next 15 years, experts agree that cargoes moving through US ports will double. Given that nearly 98 % of all domestic freight moves on our nation’s highways and rail roads, the implications of this current and future growth are clear.

Expanded use of waterborne transportation, or “America’s Marine Highway,” is an effective way to help relieve this gridlock as waterborne transportation is underutilized. America’s Marine Highways, consisting of more than 25,000 miles of inland, intracoastal, and coastal waterways, has considerable room to grow. This is cost effective, requires very little new infrastructure, and represents significant fuel savings and air emissions reductions. And it can help offset some of the estimated $300 billion in highway and rail infrastructure needed to meet the nation’s transportation needs over the next two decades.

Welcome to our new Marine Highway web site. The Marine Transportation System, which includes America’s Marine Highways, plays a big role in the nation’s economy, generating 13 million US jobs and 22 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. It will be an essential tool as we take on the real challenges of landside congestion and the current economic crisis.

I am happy to announce our new America’s Marine Highway Program and the recent Interim Final Rule that establishes its framework and objectives. Please take a minute to look it over using the link below. Through this program, we can not only help relieve gridlock, but also reduce our dependence on foreign energy, improve air quality – and perhaps most important – generate high-paying U.S. jobs that can never be outsourced.

Whether you are a state or metropolitan transportation planner, a federal official, or a shipper, vessel operator or port authority, the Marine Highway offers solutions to today’s challenges. I invite you to tour the site and contact our Office of Marine Highways and Passenger Services to see what America’s Marine Highways Program can do for you.

Please bookmark this page and watch us build America’s Marine Highways program and the web site to provide you with the tools you need to keep America moving.

In December 2007, the President signed the Energy Independence and Security Act, directing the Secretary of Transportation to establish a program aimed at expanding the use of America’s Marine Highways as an extension of the surface transportation system to mitigate landside congestion. As the first step in developing the program, the Department of Transportation published an interim final rule on October 9, 2008.

The proposed rule establishes a framework to provide federal support to both institutionalize and expand the use of America’s Marine Highways. It has four primary components:

• Marine Highway Corridors: Designating Corridors will integrate Marine Highways as an extension of the surface transportation system and encourage the development of multi-jurisdictional coalitions to focus public and private efforts and investment.
• Marine Highway Project Designation: Designating Marine Highway Projects is aimed at mitigating landside congestion by starting new or expanding existing services to provide the greatest benefit to the public in terms of congestion relief, improved air quality, reduced energy consumption and other factors. Designated Projects will receive direct support from the Department of Transportation.
• Incentives, Impediments and Solutions: The Maritime Administration, in partnership with public and private entities, will identify potential incentives and seek solutions to impediments to encourage utilization of the Marine Highway and incorporate it, including ferries, in multi-state, state and regional transportation planning.
• Research: The Department of Transportation, working with the Environmental Protection Agency, will conduct research to support America’s Marine Highways, within the limitations of available resources. Research would include environmental and transportation benefits, technology, vessel design, and solutions to impediments.

Vessels engaged in Marine Highway operations now also qualify for Capital Construction Fund benefits. This program was created to assist owners and operators of US-flag vessels in accumulating the capital necessary for the modernization and expansion of the U.S. merchant marine.

Interested parties are invited to comment on the interim final rule by February 6, 2009. The interim final rule also solicits recommendations for designation of Marine Highway Corridors.

A new service on the James River from the Port of Norfolk to the Port of Richmond will shift more than 4,000 trucks-worth of cargo off nearby Interstate-64 and onto the waterway.

For further information or questions, please contact Michael Gordon in the Office of Marine Highways and Passenger Services at 202-366-5468.