Study Assesses U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Inland Navigation Project Delivery

Waterways Council, Inc. released a study by HDR, Inc. (Recommendations for Improving the Delivery of Inland Waterway Capital Projects and accompanying infographic) that examines why costs for U.S. inland waterways capital projects (locks and dams) escalate, timelines for completion continue to slip, and economic benefits to the Nation from projects’ execution are consistently delayed.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works mission is responsible for constructing the Nation’s inland waterways infrastructure. The HDR study employed a multi-faceted approach, including interviews with customers of the Corps and other relevant entities to obtain perspectives on improving the delivery of lock and dam projects. In addition, HDR conducted comprehensive background research and broader analyses of the systemic challenges associated with delivering large-scale infrastructure projects within established timeframes and budgets.

America’s lock and dam infrastructure has been slow to modernize over the past 40 years. Since 1987, only 10 projects to modernize or expand locks on the inland system have been completed. Seven of those projects were started and finished between 1987 and 1997 with an average cost overrun of 33%.

For many years, inadequate or uncertain annual funding was cited as the primary cause of cost overruns and schedule delays, but what has become clear since