View non-flash version
20 MN April 2011 MAINTENANCE The release of the President’s FY 2012 budget on Valentine’s Day was hardly a love letter to the inland waterways industry, but the contents were not unexpected either. When the President repeatedly talks about the importance of transportation infrastructure and expanding exports, but leaves out any mention of the critical role of the waterways, nothing comes as a surprise. We are simply left scratching our heads in puzzlement and disbelief. The President’s FY 2012 budget request calls for $4.6 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works Budget. The President’s request for FY 2011 was $4.9 bil- lion, but that number was down from $5.445 billion enacted in 2010. Operations & Maintenance levels called for in the FY 2012 budget are $2.314 billion versus $2.361 billion in FY 2011 and the $2.4 billion enacted in 2010. Proposed funding levels for Construction, which does not include a $100 million rescission, is $1.480 billion in FY 2012 ver- sus $1.690 billion in FY 2011 and $2.031 billion in 2010. Proposed funding levels for priority navigation projects already under construction — Chickamauga Lock & Dam $0, Inner Harbor Navigation $0, Kentucky Lock Addition $0, Lower Monongahela Lock & Dams $1 mil- lion, Olmsted Lock & Dam $150 million, Emsworth Dam (major rehab) $3 million — total $154 million in FY 2012 and were $158.2 million in FY 2011. The inefficiencies in funding and project delivery man- agement that plague waterways navigation projects are most apparent when you look at the cost to complete modernization projects, the current cost estimate ($6.327.7 billion) versus the remaining balance to com- plete the projects ($3.685.4 billion). Cutting the Corps’ budget is problematic for the agency and its civil works mission, but is also problematic for the nation overall because modern and efficient lock and dam infrastructure on our waterways is the key to U.S. com- ECONOMICS “101” By Cornel Martin, President and CEO, Waterways Council, Inc. Dewatering and repairs of the IHNC on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. Photo cour tesy USACE.
