Barging Up the River

By: Lowell
Published On: 5/7/2007 7:18:04 AM

Is this a good idea or not? 

A maritime company is seeking federal seed money to see if a barge service between Hampton Roads and Richmond will float.

The proposed James River Barge Line has the potential to take some of the growing volume of cargo containers off Interstate 64 and U.S. 460 between Hampton Roads and Richmond. Only 2 percent of the nation's freight now moves on waterways.

This  seems pretty obvious to me, but maybe there are some environmental, safety, or other issues I'm not aware of.  Actually, I'm surprised that barging freight from Hampton Roads up the James River to the Port of Richmond isn't being done on a large scale already.  Does anyone know why not?

Comments



There are several possible reasons (Glant - 5/7/2007 8:04:46 AM)
I use to live near the Illinois River which has a decent amount of barge traffic.  I can guess at a few reasons.

1 -- Is the James "Barge Navigable?"  In other words, are there any bends that would be too sharp for a barge and tug?  What is the depth?

2 -- Does Richmond have the facilities to handle barges?

3 -- A lot of the barge traffic on the Illionois and Mississippi, if I understand correctly, is grain and other bulk materials.  Can we run the barges effectively with other cargo?

Just some thoughts.



Sounds like they are talking about cargo containers... (ericy - 5/7/2007 9:27:34 AM)

They arrive by ship in the Norfolk area.  I gather they currently transfer them to trucks, but you could easily load them on a barge instead.


Purely from an anergy perspective.... (ericy - 5/7/2007 8:58:31 AM)

Trucking of goods is a lot less fuel efficient than rail, which is less efficient than barge/ship.  In the era of cheap oil, I guess you could make the case that shipping by truck was OK.

I hear anecdotal stories about how shipping is moving back towards rail - mainly because of high fuel costs.  I suppose this is another manifestation of the same thing.



You beat me to it... (Eric - 5/7/2007 10:55:20 AM)
Seems to me that a well designed, maintained, and used rail system could replace much of the long distance cargo transportation.  Most of the need for trucks should be local distribution - and those should be smaller trucks.

And I'd side with rail over barges because the routes (i.e. tracks vs. waterways) are much more easily configured to our needs.



Rail line is not that easy (Glant - 5/7/2007 8:40:29 PM)
It requires the rail line to aquire the rights to land from point A to point B.  If the barge line is feasible, then there is only the cost of building the terminal and aquirirng the tugs and barges.


True. (Eric - 5/8/2007 12:58:58 PM)
I was speaking in the bigger picture.  Although building rail lines does cost a lot, I'm sure it's cheaper than digging canals from (generic) point A to B.  Obviously, if a waterway already exists the barge concept comes into play.


Good Idea (Newport News Dem - 5/7/2007 7:57:10 PM)
U.S. Maritime Administration Administrator Sean T. Connaughton said the James River Barge Line looks viable. "They have a very good business plan," he told The Virginian-Pilot.

Therefore they don't need a half mil in governmen "seed" money. Also, how much will the taxpayers have to pick up for additional dredging on the James Rier Channel?