Reports - WSTB

WSTB Reports

Review of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Restructured Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway Feasibility Study: Second Report (2004)

Newsletter Article

The report finds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has "made good progress" in broadening its proposed plan for navigation improvements on the Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway system to give greater consideration to ecological restoration. However, the plan still does not provide sufficient economic justification for expanding locks on the rivers because models used to predict demand for barge transportation were flawed. Also, little attention is paid to inexpensive, nonstructural navigation improvements that could help better manage barge traffic. The revised plan includes new creative and potentially useful ecosystem restoration measures, but these measures should be more firmly grounded in river science principles and more broadly consider how the river's ecology might affect or be affected by navigation, recreation and other uses.
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