BusinessTN

As it approaches the 20th anniversary of its completion, some say the best days for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway are yet to come.

The waterway is a 234-mile, $2 billion U.S. Corps of Engineers project that connects the Tennessee River with the Gulf of Mexico.

The increased reliance on intermodal transportation—the use of river barges, trains and trucks to move containers of goods—and a planned improvement to a major river lock may bring increased traffic and development to the waterway.

But since the TennTom was completed in December 1984, it has struggled to overcome criticisms that it is a pork barrel project whose costs greatly outweigh its benefits.

Chief among the complaints is the fact that the waterway can handle only eight barges at a time. This prevents most large commercial shippers from considering the TennTom—even though the route to the Gulf is shorter.

“It’s just a cost issue,” says barge traffic broker Walt Wire, president of Marine Freight in Memphis. “The whole purpose of barge traffic is to move large amounts of tonnage for a long distance very cheaply. The smaller number of units, the higher the cost.”

In the last ten years, the TennTom has averaged about eight million tons of commercial traffic a year, according to U.S. Corps of Engineers data. By comparison, the Tennessee River saw 45 million tons, while there were about 300 million tons for the Mississippi River. While not exactly comparable, Wire says that’s an indication of a problem.

“It’s just not good busi- ness to use the TennTom river,” Wire says.

But the economics might change as rising fuel prices force companies to consider alternate shipping methods. One gallon of fuel can move one ton of cargo by barge 514 miles, compared to 202 miles by rail and 59 miles by truck, says Don Waldon, the administrator of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Authority.

Also, container shipping and intermodal transportation can be efficient in smaller barge configurations. This could mean the eight-barge limit on the TennTom may no longer be a liability.

“Intermodal will catch on,” says Les Stuart, vice president of trade and development for the Alabama State Port Authority. “Investments will have to be made. [People] have to be shown it will work.”

Traffic from East Tennessee shippers also may increase on the TennTom should federal funding be secured for needed improvements to the lock at Chickamauga, Waldon says. The lock, which can handle only one barge at a time, is badly damaged. A U.S. Corps of Engineers study says the lock should be rebuilt and enlarged to accommodate the necessary barge sizes needed to benefit commercial traffic.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is chair this year of the four-state group (with Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky) that oversees the waterway’s development. “The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway offers the entire state of Tennessee, and especially the southwest part of the state, extraordinary economic development opportunities,” Bredesen says. “By connecting the Gulf of Mexico and the Port of Mobile to the Tennessee River, the river becomes a vital route for international commerce.”

Economic development spurred by the TennTom has been spotty over the years though it has picked up recently. A Boeing rocket plant opened in Decatur, Ala., in 2000, and an IPSCO steel mill opened in Mobile in 2001. The combined investment for the plants was $1 billion, and both companies said the TennTom was a major factor in deciding to locate there.

These investments and others, which bring jobs to the historically underdeveloped rural South, are major reasons why the TennTom was built by the federal government, says University of North Alabama economist and researcher Pete Williams.

But now, for development to continue, Williams says it’s up to communities along the waterway to step up and develop industrial sites with utilities and roads to attract industry.

“While to this date it does not appear to be a huge success, in the coming years you may see more development,” Williams says. “The waterway has not been generating a huge return from the very first moment, but its growth over time will show its true success.”