The Department of Transportation plans to establish a national network of short water transportation routes as a way of easing congestion on some of the nation's busiest roads, according to GreenCarCongress. 

While using the mighty Mississippi seems like a great idea for relatively low carbon transportation, some of the proposed routes seem just a little fragile for the task of carrying barge traffic.

Navigable waterways running near six interstate routes have been designated by the DOT as "Corridors of the Future":

* I-95 from Florida to the Canadian border
* I-70 in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio
* I-15 in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California
* I-5 in California, Oregon, and Washington
* I-10 from California to Florida
* I-69 from Michigan to Texas.

How "navigable" these waterways truly are remains to be seen. In parts of California, that canal alongside Interstate 5 is not much bigger than a bathtub. You wouldn't want any environmentally hazardous substances in there.

With higher grain production, Missouri producer R.D. James says that barge traffic will become increasingly important for transportation of petroleum and other energy forms.

“Pipelines and railroads are already at maximum capacity, and building new facilities is difficult because of environmental and other regulatory requirements."

“Barges are a far more economical method of shipping than rail or truck," James said. "The nation’s shippers save $3 billion a year by moving their goods by barge. The typical barge can move 750,000 bushels of corn; that same amount would require 870 trucks.”

Bulk shipments of fertilizer, grain and coal, as well as iron ore, alumina, DRI and HBI, ferro alloys, ferrous scrap, pig iron, steel slabs and coils, metallurgican and petroleum coke and wood chips, all depend on barges to reach market.

The United States already transports about 1 billion tons of domestic cargo annually using waterways, which includes more than 25,000 miles of inland, intracoastal and coastal waterways. The road is still king, though: About 92 percent of all domestic freight currently moves on road and rail infrastructure.

The DOT estimates that congestion on roads, bridges, railways and in certain ports costs the United States as much as $200 billion a year.

“These (water) highways have no stoplights, traffic or potholes,” said Deputy Secretary Barrett, in a Department of Transportation press release. “Sometimes transportation solutions require new concrete, but other times the answer is as simple as using existing water.”

The huge benefit of using waterways, of course, is that it is a low-carbon way to move stuff. Barge transportation burns far less fuel per ton of product transported than, say, an 18-wheeler.

But in the twilight of this administration, it's likely not the lack of "stoplights, traffic or potholes" that the current administration sees as the benefit of water transport, so much as the freedom to transport environmentally dubious energy supplies that citizens might object to on the highway.

The DOT plan is up for public review and goes into effect after a 120-day comment period, so if you've got a canal running behind your house and you're concerned, now's the time to say something.

Photo by flikr user MNkiteman