The Upper Mississippi River Basin Association (UMRBA) is expanding on a regional effort to improve freight mobility through innovative, strategic approaches as well as to promote the inland waterways to improve the nation’s overall transportation system.
The Upper Mississippi River System and the Missouri River are vital transportation corridors, connecting the Midwest to the world economy. “Use of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers for freight supports and improves the flexibility of the entire U.S transportation system, and increases our economic competitiveness in a global marketplace,” says Iowa DOT Director Scott Marler.
“Through UMRBA, the states DOTs work collaboratively to achieve full integration of the inland waterways into the nation’s surface transportation system, ensuring that reliable, regularly scheduled, competitive, sustainable services are routine choices for shippers in the Midwest,” says Missouri DOT Director Patrick McKenna.
The Navigation Assets Inventory, launched in 2021, is an interactive map that features ports, terminals, boat accesses, and other navigation-related information on Marine Highways 35 and 55, allowing users to search for intermodal access with a certain dock type or storage capacity. The expansion of the Navigation Assets Inventory includes an additional 734 miles of navigable river from Sioux City to St. Louis, including 2 ports, over 50 terminals, and 14 live National Weather Service and U.S. Geological Survey stream gages.
The expanded Navigation Assets Inventory now includes Marine Highways 35, 55, 29, and 70, creating new opportunities for ports, terminals, and operators to access federal funding, technical support, and other resources to expand or develop new shipping services and make the Missouri and Upper Mississippi Rivers a more cost-effective and self-sustaining transportation route.
UMRBA hosts the Navigation Assets Inventory as part of its efforts to facilitate interstate coordination and leadership on behalf of the five Upper Mississippi River states – Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. UMRBA continues to work to strengthen the Upper Mississippi River transportation mobility and utilization, and to ensure multi-use management of the Upper Mississippi River System.
The recently expanded Navigation Assets Inventory is available here: https://umrba.org/navigation-assets-inventory.
Crane loads scrap metal onto barge at F.J. Robers Company Terminal in the Black River portion of La Crosse Harbor.
Andrew Stephenson
