This article originally ran in the Waterways Journal on November 25, 2020.
The new administration’s infrastructure priorities will become clearer over the next few weeks and months. We hope that ports and waterways are given more than lip service in whatever emerges.
At least some states are not waiting for federal initiatives. The Illinois Department of Transportation is currently gathering comments as part of its plan to invest $150 million identified for improvements to the marine transportation system in Gov. Pritzker’s Rebuild Illinois program. Of that amount, $40 million is already committed to supporting a public-private partnership to build a new inland port at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in Cairo. As its website notes, Rebuild Illinois is not only the largest capital program in the state’s history, but also the first one that touches all modes of transportation: roads and bridges, transit, waterways, freight and passenger rail, aviation, and bicycle and pedestrian accommodations.
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