The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway
Association is an advocacy organization
for one of the nation’s longest water infra-
structure projects stretching over 1,100
miles – the Atlantic Intracoastal Water-
way (AIWW). Additionally, the AIWW
offers a direct connection between three
of the nation’s Top Ten Ports measured
by cargo value that we commonly refer
to as ‘exit ramps to the world.’ In our
role as advocates for the maintenance of the AIWW, we are
cautiously optimistic about the national discussion revolv-
ing around infrastructure investment in the coming year,
and the ability for the Administration and Congress to come
together to integrate the Nation’s maritime system.
In looking to the future, it is important to refl ect on
the past year and efforts to address waterway maintenance
from our federal partners, specifi cally Congress and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), non-federal
sponsors, and the dredging community itself.
In the President’s Budget for 2016, the AIWW began
the appropriations process with only $7.2 million for the
entire waterway. This amount was $6 million less than the
fi nal amount appropriated for the waterway in 2015. These
funds are not allocated entirely for maintenance dredging
as a substantial percentage is spent on the annual operation
and maintenance of locks on the waterway.
In response, the AIWA requested that Congress increasefunding for USACE to perform Operations & Mainte-
nance (O&M) of Inland Waterways and Small, Remote
and Subsistence Navigation, both of which could be used
to fund waterway projects. In the fi nal Energy & Water
Appropriations bill, Congress increased the amount of fed-
eral funding available to these two categories of projects
by $45 million and $48 million, respectively, and USACE
determined which projects would receive increased fund-
ing in their work plan.
In the FY16 USACE work plan, the AIWW received a
substantial increase in the amount of funding available for
waterway maintenance as the original budgeted amount
was increased to over $13.9 million. The additional fund-
ing is being used to conduct dredging projects to address
substantial shoaling problems in North Carolina and Flori-
da as had been done in 2015 in South Carolina and Florida.
Additionally, we were focused on Section 2008 of
the 2014 Water Resources Reform & Development Act
(WRRDA 2014). This section required USACE to con-
duct an Assessment of Operations and Maintenance Needs
for the AIWW and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and
provide a report to Congress. Fortunately, the Congressio-
nal delegation along the waterway supported this effort in
committee hearings and bi-partisan delegation letters, but
no funding was provided and the report was not complet-
ed. However, through ongoing coordination with USACE,
AIWA was provided the following information:- The anticipated cost to return the project to the
INFRASTRUCTURE
AIWW Outlook Brightens
Working to Develop an Integrated Maritime Transportation System
By Brad Pickel, Executive Director Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway AssociationPickelCredit: AIWA
22 MN February 2017