Federal Officials Promote Marine Highways to Cut Emissions and Reduce Highway Traffic - 2Sustain

Posted April 13, 2010 - 2Sustain

Last week, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a new initiative to move more cargo on the water rather than on the nation’s crowded highways.

Under these new regulations, regional transportation officials will be able to apply to have specific transportation corridors – and even individual projects—designated by the DOT as a “marine highway” if they meet certain criteria. Once designated, these projects will receive preferential treatment for any future federal assistance from DOT or the Department’s Maritime Administration (MARAD).

Expanding water transportation has the potential to reduce highway congestion, improve shipping efficiencies and shrink the environmental impact of your supply chain.

“There are many places in our country where expanded use of marine transportation just makes sense,” says David Matsuda, Acting Administrator of the Maritime Administration, in a press release. “It has so much potential to help our nation in many ways: reduced gridlock and greenhouse gases and more jobs for skilled mariners and shipbuilders.”

Industry leaders who convened at the Seventh Annual Journal of Commerce Marine Highways & Logistics Conference in Baltimore last week agree.....

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