Mississippi River shipping infrastructure is aging. Who should pay for the repairs? – Bloomington Pantagraph

MJS locks 1Around 175 million tons of freight travels on the Mississippi River each year, and from the river’s headwaters to southern Illinois, a series of locks and dams guide barges through the journey. A 2019 Agribusiness Consulting report found that in 2017, more than half of boats and barges on the river were delayed at locks and dams, up from about one in five in 2000. Delay time increased from 90 minutes to about 122 minutes, some of the longest delays in the country.
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Riverbender
3 years ago

Here is a novel idea. make the river a toll way meaning those who use the river can pay their fair share for using the infrastructure needed for them to use it. Get that? Their “fair share” taht is a slogan I hear so often these days/ 
Pay their fair share and lets move on keeping the governments hands out of it

The Paraclete
3 years ago
Reply to  Riverbender

That was considered when the origins of the lock and dam configuration was proposed. However giving the Army Corp of Engineers exclusive power over the system provided the government the means to torment anyone with a boat. It was just too tempting.

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