Channels, marine highways, NOAA, NY/NJ
In Infrastructure, Marine Highway, New York Harbor on November 13, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Click for Audio
When someone talks about “keeping ships from turning into shipwrecks” we all probably could agree that’s a worthwhile use of tax dollars.
The fellow whose job it has been to map the coastal waters where ships ply the “hidden highway” is Captain Steve Barnum, who retired this year NOAA after 29 years. He most recently headed NOAA’s Coast Survey, part of the National Ocean Service (NOS).
If you click the image above, you’ll hear him talk about the valuable service provided by the folks at NOS:
- the country has “95,000 linear nautical miles of shoreline…3.4 square nautical miles of underwater territory” half of which was last mapped using “lead line soundings”…
- mapping of the coastline is “a continual process”…many parts of the coastal regions remain uncharted…some data is as old as the Russian survey from when that country controlled Alaska
- coastal surveys are also important for national security…military operations need accurate nautical charts…having a baseline makes it easier to reopen waterways after a national emergency
- the MTS is the “hidden highway”…“hidden transportation system”
- nautical charts are essential to the growth of the “efficient” marine highway…making use of the “underutilized waterways” to get trucks off the road
The captain mistakenly refers to the Verrazano Bridge as an impediment for the increasingly larger ships–it’s the Bayonne Bridge, both being in the Port of New York-New Jersey–but he is right to highlight that commercial shipping is no different than other modes in needing adequate infrastructure and mapping. In the case of bridges, another NOS navigation system–PORTS–enables ship pilots to know the air draft under bridges in addition to better understanding available channel depth. It’s just that when the highway is “hidden,” as the water routes are, it doesn’t get the attention–and the resources–that the dryways get. Pbea
appropriations, Channels, USACE
In Federal Government on October 2, 2009 at 11:51 am
At risk of speaking too soon and jinxing the whole thing… A toast to Congress!
This time next week Congress should complete action on the Energy & Water Development Appropriations for FY 2010 (HR 3183). With any luck the funding bill for the Federal water resources and energy programs will be approved by the Senate next week and become law just a couple weeks past the start of the fiscal year. (We may even hear popping corks from within Capitol Hill locker rooms.)
Well, yes, nowadays we do set low the bar for achievement in Washington. But that is not to diminish the significance of a job completed.
Just a few decades ago our Federal government started the fiscal year with enacted appropriations measures–one produced by each of the appropriations subcommittees. But that is a distant memory. Instead Continuing Resolutions (CR) by which Congress gives itself more time to finish bills and ensure government doesn’t grind to a halt now are predictable fixtures in appropriations sausage-making. Same for “omnibus” spending measures into which congresses loads all incomplete funding bills as a last, exhausted effort to get the job done.
What’s the big deal about meeting the fiscal deadline? Well, besides clearing the legislative calendar for other pressing issues, there is the matter of how well government functions and the ripple effect on lower levels of government and the entities whose programs, projects, and budgets depend on that Federal money and its timing.
In the case of the E&W bill, Corps of Engineers commercial navigation, flood control and other projects involve public agency partners and private contractors. If the Corps doesn’t have a clear funding signal from Congress contracts and other work are delayed. If it is a dredging project, factor in whether the project is in a region where the construction season is limited by weather, and if there are additional calendar restrictions based on aquatic critters mating habits, etc. There are many more practical considerations, of course. The end results are heightened costs and delayed benefits for all involved.
In the past seven years the E&W bill was completed by the October 1st deadline zero times. It was delayed anywhere from one to six months. In FY 2007 Congress just gave up and adopted a full year CR, with all its attending disruptions to projects and programs.
So, let’s acknowledge Congress for getting the E&W bill done. A toast! Pbea
